Crossed Over? (Joshua 24:15)

Acts 8:36–40 (NKJV)

36 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?” 37 Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” 38 So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. 39 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. 40 But Philip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.

In our last study we went into the deep waters of baptism. Lord willing, the Holy Spirit opened up your heart to the understanding of baptism, and why and how we baptize. Lord willing, you saw the difference between the separation of the covenants, and their purpose; and why ‘John the Immerser’ came baptizing with water, washing away Israel’s sins that was revealed to them through the Old Covenant of God’s law, and pointing to the need of the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. We also studied why it is important to apply this doctrine how it has been taught; that is, to immerse oneself under the water in the care of the elders who have been ‘sent’ by God. John the Baptist was ‘sent by God’ to proclaim the coming Christ, and that Christ would baptize with the Spirit. Therefore when an ‘ordained’ elder, through the laying on of hands, as Philip was, in regards to the office of Evangelist, we have the commission to baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Philip’s office was really that of both elder and evangelist. This was how the men were commissioned in the early church as the church was first being established. But now at the completion of the cannon of the Scriptures, the duty of baptizing is limited to the elders of a church, however, this does not eliminate the office of the evangelist. The evangelist is sent out by the commission of the local church, and therefore upon any conversions, the elders of the church are to baptize. That means they are the qualified and appointed means to validate a believer’s profession of faith and grant them the blessing of baptism.

Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

Verse 37 is a controversial verse because it is omitted from some of the early manuscripts; however it has been used throughout church history as the word of God, and there is nothing in the verse that contradicts any of the other Scriptures, and should not lead us to quarrel over disputable matters (1Tim.6:3-4). Philip’s response to the desire of the eunuch doesn’t hinder the following verse of the command to stop the chariot and go to the water. Therefore the response even fits the context and should not lead us to doubt the validity of God’s Word. Even though it is omitted from some of the earlier manuscripts, it has no bearing on the wholeness of God’s word. This text does not add or take away from the whole counsel of God in Christ Jesus; it only further confirms it, therefore, we can hold fast to what is good (1Thess.5:21; 2Thess.2:15).

The eunuch was given the whole counsel of God in Jesus Christ in systematic fashion beginning with the prophet Isaiah’s writings about the Messiah. Therefore, Philip answers the Ethiopian to respond in faith through the extra examination of his heart. Philip is principally saying, examine yourself to see if you’re in the faith (2Cor.13:5). The eunuch responded with the essential answer that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the Son of God; which was also to say, due to the recent events in Jerusalem, that Jesus Christ was crucified as King of the Jews (Jn.19:19). But without a church for the Ethiopian to go to on his way back to Cush, why bother baptizing him? It is most likely that the eunuch would still make his Sabbath trips back to Jerusalem, and we have the report of his conversion written in church history, so he most likely would have been accepted into the apostle’s fellowship in Jerusalem to eventually establish a church in Ethiopia. In the meantime, all he had was the OT Scriptures, knowledge of a crucified Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.

Upon a sincere face to face examination of the Ethiopian’s profession of faith in the Lord Jesus, who was sent from the Father to save sinners, and in the Holy Spirit who joins Himself to believers, and who brings and keeps them in the kingdom of God, Philip leads the eunuch down to some water and formalizes the man’s faith in Christ. There is not much else to say here about baptism other than that there are sometimes exceptions to this rule. If a man on his death bed is seeking counsel from the church to give assurance of his salvation, by which there are some cases where the Lord looks with pity on sinners who call upon Him at the end of life, only to give God glory in death having robbed Him of it all their life, then it is the responsiblity of the church to make an exception.

Luke 23:39–43 (NKJV)

39 Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” 40 But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” 43 And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

This man did not have the blessing of being baptized unto life in Christ, other than the imputation of it to him, having only been baptized in the sufferings of His death. This man’s trial of death was just, but Christ and the Holy Spirit were with him in his hour of death. What a comfort to enter death alongside the King of glory. This man offered nothing in terms of knowledge or the study of God to the church. But we have his recorded testimony that has blessed the children of God for all of church history. This thief has a name written down in the glory of God and in the Book of Life (Php.4:3; Rev.3:5). He has an eternal reward of being used of the Spirit and as a witness to the death of Christ. But how much more a reward would he have if he obeyed the Lord before he was on his death bed. Don’t wait to repent and be baptized. Today is the day of salvation (Heb.3-4); and today, if you repent, you will be with God in the hope of Paradise.

There are many ways to be immersed in the water. We should not be argumentative as to how one is immersed in the water. We are about the simplicity of the illustration (the gospel) of being immersed in the water. This can take many forms due to physical deficiencies; elders may not be strong enough to immerse the believer in the water and need additional help from stronger men, a cripple may not be able to get into the water without being carried by stronger men, and our imagination can think of many other reasons to prevent us from being baptized; but there are always ways that we can work together to accommodate a physical deficiency without compromising the Lord’s command. When you are baptized, you are baptized not only into the Lord but the whole body of Christ; and where you are weak, He is strong. This should not be, as it was for the ‘eunuch’ in the temple, to prevent others from the blessing of knowing the imminence of God, for the Spirit descended out of heaven like a dove upon the Lord’s baptism, which signified the embrace and oneness with His Father. Do not let fear keep you from passing from death to life. One of the points of Baptism is to be a trial of faith, to prepare you for the reality of the trial of death, as the thief and Christ Himself had to pass through. John Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress illustrates this perfectly as he crosses the river into the Celestial City. He almost drowns for fear but he makes his way across.

Matthew 3:16 (NKJV)

16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.

Mark 1:10 (NKJV)

10 And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove.

Luke 3:22 (NKJV)

22 And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”

John 1:32–33 (NKJV)

32 And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. 33 I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

Those who refuse to get in these holy waters of baptism miss out on the heavens being opened to them in Jesus Christ. It was upon coming up out of the water that the heavens were opened to Him, and the Father confirms the Son by sending the Spirit upon Him in the bodily form of a dove. John was witness to this event along with the crowd that day, and the forerunning message of John the Baptist was (Matt.3:1-3) and (Mk.1-4) by which both Matthew and Mark apply Isaiah’s prophecy to John and to Christ; but what I want you to see is Malachi’s perspective:

Malachi 3:1–3; 7–12 (NKJV)

1 “Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the Lord of hosts. 2 “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord An offering in righteousness. . . . 7 Yet from the days of your fathers You have gone away from My ordinances And have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” Says the Lord of hosts. “But you said, ‘In what way shall we return?’ 8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation. 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it. 11 “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” Says the Lord of hosts; 12 and all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” Says the Lord of hosts.

In the days of the prophet Malachi, Israel was offering blemished and defective sacrifices to the Lord at a high cost to the poor. In other words the rich were taking advantage of the poor and were robbing God of His rightful glory. Malachi rebukes the national leaders to bring the whole tithe into the storehouse as a test of faith, and promised that if they obeyed the Lord that He would ‘open up’ the heavens and pour out a blessing upon the whole nation. My friends, the baptism of Jesus Christ has paid your tithes, and upon your obedience to His baptism, the Father receives you as a Son. Your own tithes and offerings cannot open the floodgates of heaven. Only the righteousness of Jesus Christ can pay your tithes and offerings. All that you offer of yourself is worthless and blemished in the sight of God. But upon the obedience to the Lord’s command to repent and be baptized, you are washed in His righteousness, you are ‘precious’ in His sight, and set free from the ‘curse’ of the law. My friends, Baptism is a hill die one! You and I don’t have enough money or time or prayers in the world to open up the floodgates of heaven; but if you offer your whole self in the water, you receive a whole Christ. You receive the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and are made in the image and likeness of God. But it must be by faith, and faith alone, in what Christ alone has done to fulfill ALL righteousness! But if you love money, and power, and esteem, you’ll drown in the Red Sea of your own blood! (Heb.11:29; Acts 18:6; Ezk.33:5)

Ezekiel 16:5–7 (NKJV)

5 No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out into the open field, when you yourself were loathed on the day you were born. 6 “And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ 7 I made you thrive like a plant in the field; and you grew, matured, and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed, your hair grew, but you were naked and bare.

What you need to see about the birth of Israel is that it was not her time of God’s love. Israel’s nakedness was laid bare because she was covered in her own righteousness, not through the covenant of love. She was alive even though she was dead.

Ezekiel 16:8–9 (NKJV)

8 “When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,” says the Lord God. 9 “Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil.

My friends, is it the time of God’s love for you? Are you fully matured for God’s love? Are you ripe for salvation? Are you hungry and thirsty for the righteousness of Jesus Christ? Then get a bath and wash away your filthiness. The vileness of your own works before God stains your garments. You need a white robe and the fragrance of the smoked Lamb!

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.

The following sentence is my personal translation of verse 39. Upon a close look at the grammar in the original Greek, I saw some room for textual criticism. Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord seized Philip, until he could see the eunuch no more, because he went on his way rejoicing. Let’s begin with the verb ἥρπασε (caught). Tradition has confused the translation of this verse since the KJV and the AV, which are the oldest English translations and are most likely the culprits of the confusion. They inserted the ‘away’, which is not in the original Greek, but they probably inserted it because the word is used mostly with the thought of snatching and moving away (Matt.13:19). The RSV translates it “caught up;” but ‘up’ is not present in the Greek, and if it was, the word ἕως (up) would be included in the text (2Cor.12:2). By itself, depending on the context, the verb ἥρπασε could mean to seize, capture, or take hold of by force. In this context it most likely means seize, but could also be translated captured with the additional word ‘attention.’ Although the word attention is not in the text, the idea comes from the following phrase, which I am going to show you how I translated it word by word.

The original word by word in the SBL is: καὶ οὐκ εἶδεν αὐτὸν οὐκέτι ὁ εὐνοῦχος, ἐπορεύετο γὰρ τὴν ὁδὸν αὐτοῦ χαίρων. Beginning with, καὶ οὐκ (until), the two act as one word to make a connection to the verb in the previous phrase. The particle adverb οὐκ is a negative marker which draws attention ‘away’ from the previous verb ‘seized’ or better yet, captured, once the connection is made. Therefore it could read, the Spirit of the Lord captured Philip’s attention, until . . . The noun Philip is in the accusative case which marks the verb εἶδεν and the pronoun αὐτὸν (he could see), therefore Philip has ownership or the attention of what is being seen in the next phrase. Therefore it translates up to this point (the Spirit of the Lord captured Philip’s attention, until he could see οὐκέτι ὁ εὐνοῦχος (the eunuch no more).

As you can see this would change the meaning of this verse dramatically. It directs our attention in a completely different way than previously thought. Philip was not miraculously swept away by the Lord, but directed his attention on the joy of the eunuch as ‘the Spirit’ began to leave with the eunuch rejoicing in his salvation. Philip was filled with the Spirit as he was drawn together into the same joy. The Greek conjunction γὰρ can be translated because or for, and connects the next phrase back to what ‘caught’ Philip’s attention which was watching the eunuch travel down the road worshiping the Lord. Therefore the completed translation of the verse is, “Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip’s attention, until he could see the eunuch no more, because he went on his way rejoicing.

But Philip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.

I’m not going to get into all the labor I put into translating this verse, but I do want to make a few comments as to why I changed it a little. When the original translators of the KJV and the AV were converting the Greek into English they most likely had a presupposition about the construct of words and did not make the connections of the context to the author’s original intent. And down through the course of history many strange imaginations was passed on through an error in translation. It most likely was not the intent of the original translators to assume that Philip was teleported ‘away’ into Azotus as some commentators portray. They most likely just didn’t understand how the words were grouped together in this context.

Philip was then founded at Azotus, as he was cutting through with the preaching of good news in all the cities, until he arrived at Caesarea.

The translation above is what I believe to be the closest to the Luke’s original intent. Luke was not quick to be ‘a miracle’ man. He was a doctor and understood the laws of the physical realm. He wouldn’t have denied the miracles, but also wouldn’t have been quick to judge everything a miracle. The Greek verb εὑρίσκω (to find) is also rooted in the thought of a foundation or a fixed location. The verb is in the passive which is most likely why the original translators presumed upon their translation and tried to connect εὑρίσκω to the previous context, but may have missed Luke’s ‘root’ intentions for the selection of the passive verb. If Luke’s train of thought was the destruction of the ‘foundations’ of the idolatry that had taken over the cities, then it would make sense that Philip would be found there “cutting through” which was his preaching style as previously studied when Philip cut through Samaria with the gospel.

Luke is drawing our attention to the fact that Philip is, spiritually speaking, cutting through the cracked foundations that are crumbling around the cities of Azotus and Caesarea; and that Philip was ‘founded’ there for a while to lay the foundations of the gospel. In others words he was pounding through like a hammer destroying all the strongholds that Satan had laid hold of in the region. King Herod had built a beautiful sea port in the region of Caesarea around 22 A.D. He named it after Caesar Augustus. The foundations of Ashdod or Azotus was most likely deteriorating, literally, and Philip pounded his way through the area demolishing and completely pulling down what was falling apart and pounding away at what Rome was building in the area.

We have come now from the preaching of the gospel, to the application of the gospel in baptism, and back to the application of preaching the gospel to the ends of the world. It seems to be clear that the world rotates at the mercy of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The question is, are you ready to say good bye to your old way of thinking and ‘arrive’ at the place where you can sail away in the glory of God unto the Promised Land? But you must pass through the deep waters of Baptism to safely get to the other side.