Get Up and Go (Part 1)

0:17 As I always do, I would want to remind you that their remain approximately 120, well, maybe I should say greater than a hundred, um, Israelis, uh, are being kept as hostage. It's thought to be only about 50 of them are alive still. Um, but rather than share more in my own words today, I just wanted to share that and I wanna play for you, um, a video, the longer one, please. And so, just fair warning, it's an eight minute video, so you'll be, I, I don't normally choose eight minutes, but, um, let me just say, I had to whittle it down from 30. So eight minutes is what we got.

1:03 Um, and it is, uh, I can't remember if his name is, is listed right at the beginning, but you'll, his name will pop up, uh, throughout, through somewhere about halfway through, through the video, I think. And he is, um, from the u United Arab Emirates. Um, and he is being interviewed by a Jewish man. And so I just would like to, to play that just this short segment of the video. He, he goes on, by the way, I, I cut off the first about eight minutes of the interview and I cut off about the last 15 minutes. He goes on. His whole interview is fantastic. Uh, if you wanna watch it, um, the link is in the YouVersion Bible app.

1:49 Uh, if you're looking for notes for today, um, it's the, the video's listed. I wish everybody could hear even just the last statement he made, which is the exi, the, the, the fight is not about a two state solution. The fight is about the existence of Israel, because that's exactly correct. Those who continue to fight, deny the existence of Israel, period. They don't want a two-state solution. Oh man, I had a great other video and, and maybe I'll play it next week, but it was an interview of going to different people. I think he was a Jewish guy going in the West Bank today, uh, this past week or two weeks ago, asking if they

2:37 wanted a two state solution. 'cause he just wants people to hear it from their lips. Uh, and I, I'll just, I'll leave the answers for later, but it, it, I'll tell you the interview is, is definitely worth 30 minutes. If you have 30 minutes and 49 seconds to watch it, or 51 or whatever it is. We are continuing on in the book of Acts today. Acts chapter eight. I just want to remind you, as I'm doing each week about what we've covered, acts chapter eight is describing the movements of the good news of Yeshua beyond the House of Israel. So Acts chapter eight is really the first movement

3:24 or the breach beyond the, the accepted limitations of the House of Israel. So I, I want to remind us, uh, and it's interesting because he actually uses the same terminology, uh, the, the, the man we just watched in Acts chapter one, verse eight, it says, but you'll receive power when the Ko has come upon you and, and, and the, the power comes upon them for a particular purpose. And here we're given the purpose. The purpose is you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judah. And, and what, what the interviewer said was CHONe or Samaria and to the end of the earth. So it sets the trajectory for the spread

4:12 of the good news of the Promised Messiah of Israel. The Messiah of Israel came to provide redemption for the people of Israel and also the people of the nations to the end of the wor of the earth. So in Acts chapter eight, verses five through 25, we just finished this up last week, we, we learned about Philip and, and then subsequently the emissaries who go down to Samaria and Philip shares the good news of the Kingdom of God and the name of Yeshua, the Messiah. And while he's there, many are turning and being immersed by him. And then the emissaries come down to see what's going on.

5:00 When they come down, they confirm that this is a work of God, and they lay their hands upon the people, and God confirms that it's his work by pouring out the Holy Spirit. So you have both confirmation from the leaders of, of the body of Messiah. Now, you could, you could make an argument, this is not my, this is not my focus for the message, but you can make an argument that at one point, Yeshua actually transfers the leadership of Israel from the leadership of Israel to his disciples. You can make that argument, uh, through, through the gospels. And if that's the case, then now the leadership of Israel is coming down and recognizing the move of the good news of the kingdom of God beyond the limitations of the house of Israel.

5:49 So it's the first, uh, it's the first, uh, what do you call it? Um, voyage beyond the, the, the, the barriers. So the, the apostles come down, they confirm it, and the Lord confirms the confirmation by pouring out his spirit. And, and then you see the evidence of the spirit being poured out. And it confirms not, it's, it's not just confirmation, uh, it's not just confirmation. By the way, I want you to think about this. There's really, I guess you could use the same two areas or, or regional entities today. And that would be the only, the only thing

6:34 that about measures up. But in playful terms, if I could put it in our context, it would be like the good news going from Dallas into Oklahoma. You can laugh. It's, I'm, I'm being playful here. You know, there's, there's, there's some animosity between Oklahoma and Texas, both in sports and in, in, in everything else. There's a little bit of animosity. So if we're from Texas, how do we really know God wants Oklahomans, Oklahomans, IANS, I don't know, Oakies. How do we know God really wants Oakies? How do we know? Well, because when we go out

7:19 and we share the good news, and then the leadership from, from Texas comes to say, oh, yeah, this is exactly what God wants. What I I, in that case, God would pour out his spirit upon the oakies. I I get, this is kind of a funny example, but pour out his spirit. And then both the, all of the okies know that this is the plan of God. And also all of the Texans know that this is the plan of God. You see? So it serves as confirmation to both entities who are even separate from those within what is happening, because God is pouring out his spirit, uh, just for clarity's sake.

8:06 I'm talking about Judeans, Israelites and Samaritans. But anyways, it's confirmation to both the Samaritans and to the emissaries, the leaders of this, of, of the move, of what God is doing. So now we come into this week's portion, uh, and and because as I told you two weeks ago, it's hard for me to cover too many verses and still get out of here, um, at a reasonable hour. Uh, I had to divide this one into two also. And so I'll, I'll read the, we will read the whole passage, but we're really not going through the whole passage. We're gonna stop, um, at the end of verse 33.

8:52 So we're gonna start here in, in chapter eight, verse 26. Now, an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, get up and go south on the road, going down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert road. So he got up and went and behold an Ethiopian eunuch, an official who was responsible for all the treasure of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, had traveled to Jerusalem to worship and was now returning sitting in his chariot. He was reading the prophet Isaiah, and the ruach said to Philip, go catch up with this chariot. Philip ran up and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, do you understand what you're reading?

9:38 How can I, he said, unless someone guides me. So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now, the passage of scripture that he was reading was this. He was led as a lamb to slaughter and as a lamb before its shearers is silent. So he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied. Who shall recount his generation for his life as taken away from the earth? The eunuch replied to Philip, please tell me who is the prophet talking about himself or someone else. Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he proclaimed the good news about Yeshua. Now, as they were going down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, look, water, what's

10:25 to prevent me from being immersed? He ordered the chariot to stop. They both got down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and Philip immersed him when they came up out of the water, the ach of of the Lord, the snatched, Philip away, the eunuch saw no more of him for he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Ottis. And as he passed through, he kept proclaiming the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea this passage. Now, the angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, get up and go.

11:11 It should actually be strikingly familiar words for those of us who read through the tour portions regularly. Get up and go where? Go south and we'll come back to the why it's familiar in a few minutes. Get up and go, go south on the road, going down from Jerusalem to Gaza. Well, the question, my question is, when I first read this is where is Philip? Philip is in Samaria. That's where we left him, at least in, in my understanding of the text. I'll tell you, he could be in Samaria or he could be not in Samaria. He could be in Jerusalem. I have always assumed that Philip remained in Samaria when it says,

11:59 and they went up back to Jerusalem and they shared the good news on the way. I always assumed that the, they was Peter and John, but the, they could as easily include Philip, that they were continuing to go back and Philip went back with them. And now Philip is in, is in Jerusalem. Regardless, I wanna show you a map if you guys can, oh, yeah, there we go. Here is a map, and, and I'm gonna leave this map up for a little bit, but I want to show you a few things.

12:44 Here is Jerusalem. I will color on the map for you, for your sake. There's Jerusalem, here is Samaria, and here is the road going south. You can follow the green line. I, I know I just drew a yellow one, but you can follow that, that green line is the road going south from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is geographically what's going on it. By the way, whenever you read the Bible, it's important to, to remember that these things don't happen in a vacuum. Like when I was talking to the children earlier and I said, who's pin's grandfather?

13:30 We don't think about Aaron having grandchildren. We think about Aaron, we think about Eliezer, and we think about Pincus. We don't think about, oh, that's my gramps. Yeah, he's just offering sacrifices today. I'm learning from him. Like, you have to understand everything in the Bible is interwoven and, and connected, and, and it's not. We don't, it's it's never focused about the individual. It's always about communal. What is going on? Who's connected to who, where's it happening? And these are always questions that we should ask when we're reading. So here we have, um, ju Judea and Samaria, uh, as mentioned. So we, I I showed you where Samaria is. I showed you where Jerusalem is.

14:16 I showed you where Gaza is, uh, a ottis occurs in in next week's, but I'll show it to you anyways. It's right here. And this is the modern day Ash. Uh, if you're looking for, um, what modern day is, and, and in fact, let me just, lemme just show you for a second, modern day here. Here is side by side, a, a, a biblical map and, and a kind of modern map. Um, everything that's in the gray is what, um, the presenter was calling the West Bank, or what you'll often hear referred to, to as the West Bank. It's, it's really actually Judea and Samaria, which is why Israelis call it Judea and Samaria. Um, and then you have the Gaza Strip, which is longer

15:05 than, than just the Gaza that is shown on the, on the map. But actually Gaza is a very ancient city that was demolished by the Roman, uh, by the Greeks, I think. And then a new city was rebuilt in this time period. And so now we're gonna come to the next part in our text. I'm, you guys can leave. Um, you guys can leave this map up, uh, as, as we're going on, I'll, I'll just point out a different, a few different things along the way. Go south. So here's the interesting thing. The go south actually doesn't have to be a go south, you know, in English. And it is this way in German also.

15:51 And, and really in Greek too in English, we, we, we try to tell you what we mean, like exactly like, go left, go right, go south, go north. Unless you get to one of those, one of those circumstances where you wonder if you can bear the presence of a bear. And, and all of a sudden you realize, wait, wait, these are different words. So here we have in Hebrew, what we think means go south, but it also could mean midday or noon. So it, it could change the, the, the context just a little bit. It could mean something along the lines.

16:43 It could mean something along the lines of there's a chariot that goes, it pulls off to the side. Why? Because it's hot. You know, none of us like to do anything noon in July in Texas, we take off from about, I mean, if we're, if we're outside, we try to take off from a noon to about five or something like that because it's unbearable. Lemme tell you, it's exactly the same in Israel. It's, it's super hot. This is a wilderness desert area. And, and, uh, as we learned, um, on our, on our sabbatical, we drove through Nevada and that place is wilderness. There's like nothing. Um, I mean, it's beautiful wilderness,

17:29 but there's like nothing for, for, for a long waves. And, and I began to tell my kids, I was like, look, you can, if you look on the horizon, it looks like there's water because it's shimmering because it's hot. My kids are like, oh, is there a lake over there? And I said, just wait until we get there. And when, you know, we drive. You guys all know, know what happens the closer you get to it, it disappears. And they're like, where'd to go? And I said, that is what is called a mirage. I said, when you think you see water, but it's not water. This is what's happening in the summer or in the heat of the day at midday or noon, if you will. Now, it could also be indicating Philip is in both the right place and at the right time.

18:17 You know, we often talk about in our society, or let me rephrase. My mother always told me, don't be in the wrong place at the wrong time because you will always get in trouble. And she was correct. I did always get in trouble when I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or even if I was in the right place at the wrong time, I would often get in trouble. But when you're at the right place and the right time, things go well. And what's interesting is actually when you begin to examine the scriptures and you see God intervening in history miraculously, like inserting his hand into our history, you'll often notice that when God does it,

19:03 it's at a particular time. And that time is what reveals his nature to everyone else. Now, you can recall the, the, the, the Exodus story with Pharaoh. Pharaoh goes multiple plagues. Listen, I don't know if any of us would've lasted as long. Um, I certainly hope it wouldn't have lasted as long. But at one point Pharaoh says, don't relieve me. Don't, don't relieve us as the plague today. Do it tomorrow at this particular time. Why? Because if something could be done at a particular time, it shows the miraculous nature of God. And what happens the next day at that particular time, the plague is gone.

19:49 And, and Pharaoh actually recognizes and goes, oh, this is legit. Now, he doesn't recognize it for long because he continues to, um, subvert the plan of God. But God often works at both a location and a time. And if you can be at both the right place and the right time, amazing things will happen. And those amazing things are indicative of the miracle of God. Now let me, let me, let me share another story with you. I gotta gauge my time just to see how many stories I can share about 22 years ago.

20:35 I know I've shared this story at least three or four times. So if you heard the story, now's your time to go check Facebook or whatever. That's how you know how old I am. By the way, about 22 years ago, I was in Africa. I was in Ethiopia when I, I was there for, for a month and we were doing, um, humanitarian outreach and, you know, sharing the good news and that sort of thing. And, um, when we arrived, we were informed by some of the locals that in the south of Ethiopia, not the north, but in the south of Ethiopia, it was in a, it was in a, a drought and a famine. I mean that, by the way, when those two things hit at once,

21:21 I guess they may often hit at once. When you have a drought, you end up having a famine. But it is kind of difficult. It is a difficult way of life then. So we began to pray the first, that first night we began to pray that the Lord would, would, um, would break the drought and bring food, and provide food, uh, for, to, to, to break the famine. Now, I also want you to understand that we were working with Jewish people and Jewish people have particular dietary restrictions, which is you can't eat roadkill. Yeah. Like you can't eat something that's dead on the road. So we got word about three weeks later

22:10 that, uh, what happened is this storm came over southern Ethiopia and it rained fish. So at the same moment, the rain broke the drought and the fish when they hit the ground, were still flopping. Yeah, they were still like, they were alive. Like to the point they were still flopping so that they would be edible to the people. Like I'm telling you, that's a miracle. Now, I will tell you, now let me, lemme take off my miracle hat for a second. And let me tell you scientifically what happened.

22:55 I can tell you exactly what happened. Why can I tell you? Because I read an article and I and I, for the life of me do not have this article still, A storm went over the Indian ocean sucked up water and fish because of the, the pressure differential between the storm and the water sucked up. Water and fish moved over Ethiopia and the pressure differential is no longer there. And it dropped so scientifically, it, it, it happened. It's a miracle because it happened at the right time and at the right place that that same storm could have dropped over a flooded place

23:42 could have dropped over a flooded place that had no famine and it would've, would've been a disaster. But here it dropped over a place with famine and, and drought, and the people praised the Lord. And, and these are things that we don't think about, but I challenge you, you should think about it every day. I, I know that I'm, I'm in story mode. And so let me, I'm gonna tell one more story and I'll come back to the passage. You think that sort of thing doesn't happen here. You know, we live in the, we live in the, the, um, scientifically, uh, enlightened west. Well, I just gave you the scientific explanation. So it, it, it scientifically it happened.

24:29 So if that's the case, then what you need to do in your daily life is figure out scientifically what just happened. And am I in the right place at the right time? Is God using me for this moment? And you'll figure out that actually God does miracles here today through you. You don't believe it comes through you because you're just helping someone. I'll save that story for no, no. Lemme give you one more story. This is a bad story. I was on sabbatical and I had intended to get gas

25:21 in Nevada and I made the comment to my wife, man, it would be really bad if somebody ran out of gas out here in the middle of nowhere because our cell phones didn't work. We drove for six hours. I think we saw 10 other cars in the six hour period. Like we saw three cows and that's it. Like there was not a living thing. And uh, we ran outta gas and thankfully we were only about three miles from a town. So I was like, I'm gonna get out and walk. So I'm walking and, and I don't recommend this for anybody,

26:08 don't, this is one of those moments. Don't do as I do, but I just, I stuck my finger out like this. And Israel, by the way, this is how you hitch not like this. Uh, and and so I stuck my finger out and this camper pulls over and I'm like, oh, thank God. And so I go hop in. And it was this really nice older couple from Arkansas and they were just doing a good deed for the day. Actually. It was their second good deed for the day. They'd helped another person, uh, fix a flat on their camper. And, and he said, was that your camper back there? And I said, yes, sir. He goes, you run outta gas? I said, yes sir. I, he says, it is just you. I said, no, my wife and children are still in the truck.

26:55 And he goes, lemme take you to that gas station. I mean, we're like three miles from the gas. I was like, thank you so much. I get out and I'm like, can you, like, did I hear you say you could take me back? I was really trying to be as nice about it as possible. And he goes, no, I can't take you back. Sorry, we're moving on. And I was like, okay, no problem. Thank you so much. Go get a gas can. And he take, he, he comes in, he bumps into me as I'm going out 'cause I'm now going to fill up the gas can. And he says, you know, we'll take you back. Don't worry about it. And I, I'm telling you, I don't know if that was a miracle of God, but he certainly was in the right place at the right time. And I'm telling you, God can use you when you're in the right place at the right time, and you have a heart to help.

27:41 And what that ends up being for other people is a miracle of the Lord. We have difficulty recognizing it as miracles. I'm telling you, if you're in the right place at the right time, it's a miracle. Like that's God's directive. Oh, this totally just goes right here. Here they are, here he is going south on a deserted road through Nevada, I'm sorry, through, through Judah. So yeah, right at the heat of the day, it, it could be, it's a desert road or it could be a deserted road. We're not entirely certain, but, um, likely the Desert road would've been deserted also. And here he comes across a chariot.

28:26 Maybe the chariot passes him. We don't know. All we know is, is the angel says, run and catch up with that chariot. The chariot could be pulled over now parked underneath the shade of a tree with its occupant, the eunuch, the Ethiopian eunuch, um, studying during the break in a travel. So it is an angel of the Lord that starts this passage off and appears to Philip and says, get up and go. This is remarkably similar by the way to Abraham and Genesis 12. It's remarkably similar to Samuel and one Samuel three. It's remarkably similar to Isaiah

29:12 and Isaiah six, where all of them, the Lord is looking for someone to do something on his behalf. And they all answer and say, here I am Lord, use me. So when you, when you say, here I am, Lord, use me, all of a sudden the miraculous begins to happen through you. It's not because of you, it's because of him. He's just using you as a vessel. So here that we have this Ethiopian euch traveling on this road, this Ethiopian eunuch has gone, had already gone up to Jerusalem to worship and was now returning. He was an official who was in charge of all of the money or the treasury for Candace, whose Candace,

29:59 Candace is the queen of Ethiopia. So we're gonna break this up apart into a few different things. First of all, there's a relationship between Israel and Ethiopia that predates this. In fact, it goes all the way back to King Solomon, king Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. And this is where the Ethiopian Jewish community today traces its lineage, its heritage. Ethiopian Jews from that point onward, mind you, I just wanna remind, remind all of us the Torah, by the time of Solomon, the Torah is already in existence. The Torah that says all Jewish men are to go up to Jerusalem three times a year is make pilgrimage three times a year,

30:46 three times a year, uh, on these particular holidays. And so if the Jewish community that is now formed in Ethiopia, it's likely, this is one of the earlier diaspora now communities, and they would've made pilgrimage up to Jerusalem occasionally, like what we witness in, in the book of Acts with the rest of the diaspora. They would've gone up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord and offer sacrifices. Now, I also want to tell you that Ethiopia in this context may or may not represent exactly Ethiopia that we know today. Um, I'll con I'll connect it, but Ethiopia was often, the term was often used to represent all of Africa, south of Egypt

31:35 and everything south of Egypt would've at that point been known as the end of what the earth. So in this same chapter, we breach the walls into Samaria. And now immediately following the breach into Samaria, we have an just a, a trickle breach to the end of the earth. You see it, this is foreshadowing what is going to happen throughout the rest of the book. And really throughout the rest of history, this eunuch who's traveling to worship, he is in charge of all of the treasure. In other words, he's the CFO,

32:20 he's the Secretary of Treasury. He, I don't know what other words you can give him. He's in charge. Oh wait, actually this is the best one that, that got, that someone came up with this week. He is Joseph from Genesis with Joseph. And when he was serving in Egypt and overall he's the Joseph for Ethiopia or everything south of Egypt. I just, I want you to think about that because this isn't just some servant who's here, he is the head, or maybe I should call it. Um, he would be,

33:08 I don't know if you would liken him to the vice president today of the United States just showed up in your house. Prime minister, we don't have a prime minister. Oh, prime minister. He would've been the prime minister. That's a good, he would ah, he would've been like the prime minister of England. You have the king, the the king, and then you have the prime minister. He, this dude is a big shot. He's not low on the totem pole. He is there. And he specifically textually tells us he was there to come up to Jerusalem to worship. So there, there's some, some things I, I might infer from that, but it's not in the text, but he's traveling for the pur

33:54 purpose of worshiping the Lord. He could be representing him himself, perhaps he's a Jewish man. He could be res uh, representing his family. Perhaps he's from a Jewish family. He could be re representing the Jewish community south of Egypt. He could also be representing the Queen and her paying homage to the God of Israel for shadowing what will happen in the end of days. He is there on a, on a massive mission. He could be Jewish. He could not be. I, I would lean toward, he probably is, um, or, or at least he's a convert.

34:41 Um, but here he is, he's gone up to worship and now he's going back. By the way, when you go up at this point in, in, in, in history, when you would make that trip, this is, this is a about a two month trip at this point in time for him to come from Ethiopia up to Israel, up to Jerusalem, you wouldn't go up and spend the night and then leave. You would be there for probably a month. The person would be gone for at least a quarter of a year, if not half a year or longer. He has gone up now he's returning and on the return trip, he's sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah. To me, clearly this eunuch is an educated man

35:29 because number one, he's reading the book of Isaiah, he's studying. This is, this is exactly what every Jewish person does. They study often, he's studying scripture to me. It indicates he wants to deepen his relationship somehow with the Lord. He knows he's done his his duty. He's trying to figure out, Lord, what more else? What else can I do? How do I get a deeper relationship with you? And he's there studying. And Philip runs up and says, uh, do you understand what you're reading? And he says, how can I, unless someone guides me. So he invites Philip to come sit with him. And now the passage of scripture that he was reading was this.

36:14 And we're gonna pause there and, and I'm gonna unpack this. The, the, the spirit of the Lord tells Philip to go up, catch up with this chariot it. By the way, it seems like an absurd command. When I, when I, when I, the camper was pulling over from me on the side of the road in Nevada, it pulled over, uh, I don't know, maybe two tenths of a mile, quarter mile up the road because it was the first place it could get off. And, and I'm seeing 'em, I don't want them to wait. So I'm like, I'm, I'm running up. Well, I'm trying to run, I dunno if you guys realize this, but where we were in Nevada, it's like 8,000 feet. And you know, I run about a hundred yards. I'm like, and it was really funny because I got in the car and the guy goes, my wife

37:00 and I thought you were gonna pass out on the side of the road. We thought we were gonna have to come back and get you. Just think about how difficult it is to run and catch up with a chariot. And the, the, the lord, the, an angel of the Lord commands. Philip go catch up with his chariot. That is, by the way, what we would call an absurd command because I can't run and catch up with a chariot. I mean, unless the chariot pulls over, which then is gonna take a while. Philip was Philip too. He doesn't question Philip just goes sharp. I'm, I'm thinking like Philip, this guy's a runner or something. But he does what he's told and he runs up

37:47 and he hears what the eunuch is, is reading. By the way, I I want you to pay attention. He, when Philip runs up, whether the cherry is moving or whether the cherry is parked, Philip doesn't immediately talk. He listens to see who this guy is and what's he doing. Lemme tell you another story. I was at a coffee shop one morning. I had been told by my father, you need to take a break today and, and, and don't go into the office. It was a couple years ago. And I said, okay. So I went to a coffee shop

38:32 because I don't know about you guys. When I'm at home with three children is not taking a break. So I go to this coffee shop, I'm like, you know what, I'm just going to, I'm gonna study. I'm gonna do all these things. I'm sitting there studying, doing emails and stuff and, and I start to hear two guys behind me talking, and they're talking about outreach to a Jewish man. So what do I do? Hmm, let me open up my ear for just a second. So they're talking and they're doing all these things and I'm sitting there listening and, and I, and I feel like I'm quite obvious now 'cause I'm, I'm like, the page is not changing nothing. My, I think my computer screen's gone black and I'm, I'm just listening.

39:18 And finally I'm like, I feel the Lord saying, you, you need to do something. I'm like, okay, well how do I do this? How do I insert myself in a conversation, say, by the way, I've been listening to you guys for the last 25 minutes. Um, you know, let, let me, let me, let me just tell you. So I turned around and I said, listen, I said, I'm so sorry to interrupt you guys. I just happened to overhear that you, that you were talking to a Jewish man and, and, and walking him through discipleship and this sort of thing. I said, my name is Ari Waldman. I lead a mess congregation, um, here in, in the Metroplex. I just wanna tell you thank you. Like thank you for taking the time to, to mentor and disciple someone new to the faith.

40:05 And I was about to turn around and they go, Hey, why don't you come sit with us? From that relationship has sprung so many blessings from the Lord. I can't even tell you, um, to the point that my encouragement is if the, if you're doing what the Lord has you to do, just listen for a few minutes, don't jump right in, listen and, and see what's going on. And then what Philip does, he actually starts with a question. He doesn't say, Hey, let me tell you what this passage means.

40:51 He says, do you understand what you're reading? And, and, and the euch says, how can I understand? Like it is really confusing. I need somebody to teach me. Can you teach me? It's always better, by the way, to lead with a question than to lead with a statement. So the eunuch responds to Philip, invites him to come and sit with him and teach him. And we get to these final two verses. In this past, in, in what I've delineated this week, he was led as a sheep to slaughter and as a lamb

41:38 before it, shears is silent. So he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him who shall recount his generation for his life is taken away from the earth. This, by the way, I would, I would actually think that what, what the eunuch is reading is more than just these two verses. He's actually reading this whole passage. And, and what I want to do is take a minute to read this passage because then Philip begins to break the passage down and share with him what it means. And we'll do that next week. But here's the passage starts in 50

42:26 Isaiah 52 verse uh, 13, behold, my servant will prosper. He'll be high and lifted up and greatly exalted, just as many were appalled at you. His appearance was disfigured more than any man, his form, more than the sons of men. So he will sprinkle, many nations kings will shut their mouths because of him for what had not been told them. They will see and what they had not heard they will perceive. You see, this is already in the, in the, in this passage in Acts eight. It's beginning to unpack this they saw but didn't perceive who has believed our report, to whom is the arm of Iai revealed for He grew up

43:11 before him like a tender shoot, like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nor beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows acquainted with grief, one from whom people hide their faces. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he is born our griefs and carried our pains. Yet we esteemed him, stricken, struck by God and afflicted, but he was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities. The chastisement for our shalom or our wellbeing. Our wholeness was upon him. And by his stripes, we are healed.

43:56 And here we come. We're we're coming to the area. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each one of us has turned to his own way. So Adonai has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb led to the slaughter like a sheep before it shears his silence. So he did not open his mouth because of oppression and judgment. He was taken away as for genera, as for his generation who considered for he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people. The stroke was theirs. His grave was given with the wicked and by a rich man in his death, though he had done no violence,

44:42 nor was there any deceit in his mouth, yet it pleased Adonai to bruise him. He caused him to suffer. If he makes his soul a guilt offering, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and the will of Adonai will succeed by his hand. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied by his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant will make many righteous and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will give him a portion with the great and he will divide the spoil with the mighty. Because he poured out his soul to death and was counted with transgressors for he bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors.

45:28 This is the passage the Ethiopian eunuch was studying and asked, I don't understand this passage. Can you explain it to me? By the way, this passage to me, it perhaps is the clearest picture painted in the tanah of Yeshua. I can, I can go on almost every page and argue, here's Yeshua on this page. Here's Yeshua on this page. But this is, this is one of the clearest to the point where there were people who went through Israel and said, let me read you this passage. And then they response would be, why are you reading me from, to me, from the Christian Bible?

46:14 And the response is, that's not the Christian Bible, that's ours. And they said, no, it's not ours. We've never heard that passage before. It doesn't exist except it does. And this passage points so clearly to Yeshua that Philip takes the time and says, let me explain to you what is going on. And we're going to, we're gonna leave off in the passage there. And, and let me leave you with just a couple things because this is where it gets real good in, in Isaiah 53, and we'll talk about it next week. I want you to think about Philip for just a moment. Who left? Who left Samaria?

47:03 When did he leave Samaria? Whether he went with Peter and John or when, or whether he went a little bit later when the angel told him to, he left some, uh, Samaria. When the work was going well, it was prosperous. The people are coming to faith and, and it's exciting. And the, and an angel from the Lord says, time to go. Do we have that ability to leave a work that is going well when the Lord tells us to leave? It's a difficult question to deal with, but you, you have to ask the question

47:49 and you have to, you have to really discern what the Lord is telling you. Let me ask you another question. Do you have the ability that when you leave the good work and you go to the next to listen before talking, and then when you talk, ask questions before giving answers? Don't assume that you know everything about someone or even their biblical literacy, by the way, because it's interesting. We are here still with this eunuch

48:36 and in Samaria with what I would call a biblically literate audience. Okay? Samaria had, they had their own religion, but they read, still read the Tanah. And this eunuch is clearly studying scripture. So to me, he's clearly biblically literate. We will see later in the book of Acts, an audience that has zero biblical literacy, and Paul engages them in an entirely different way. So you have to understand your audience. That's why you ask questions. Do you understand what you're saying or what you're reading? It's a let me encourage you to be a listener. Listen to what the person is, is saying, and

49:30 finally be ready to encourage that person, in this case, a biblically literate person who's studying and asking questions, be ready with some passages that you know and can help them point them toward Yeshua. Fill a was ready. He didn't, he didn't come to his passage and go, I, I don't know this one. He goes, let me tell you who it's about. Let me help you understand who it's about. What that means for us is we need to be students. We need to continue to read

50:17 this all the time. Because if you don't read it all the time, you forget what's in it. And if you forget what's in it, then when the moment, when the right time and the right location happen, you are unprepared to be the hands and the feet, the miracle of God in that moment. So let's not be caught unprepared. Let's be students. Let's be students. Let's be active listeners, and let's be willing to, to do what the Lord says. And listen, just listen. I, I would say first, listen to the Lord, then you listen

51:03 to others and see where they are. Because if the Lord's not telling you to engage that person and you do, you might have a different outcome going weak. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

52:11 In the name of our Messiah, Yeshua Shabbat Shalum.