What doth hinder me to be baptised?

 

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 19 JUNE 2022

ACTS 8 VERSES 26 – 40

Baptism through the experience of the Ethiopian eunuch.  In verse 27 we read that he had been down in Jerusalem to worship.  His goal, his ambition, his interest was worshipping God.  It took him to Jerusalem.  Here he found God beginning to deal with him.  He opened up his heart and showed the plans and purposes for his life.  God deals with us in various situations, manufactured situations.  Maybe God has been speaking to you about his plans and purposes for your life in this past week.  In verse 36 we hear him ask the question “what doth hinder me to be baptised?”  He was asking the evangelist in simple terms – look at my life, look at what I have been doing, what stops me from being baptised?

The conditions for baptism.  Believers’ baptism does not make you a member of this church – not all churches hold to that, but some do.  The conversion of this man was very important.  This baptism only came about with the eunuch after the conversion experience.  He was brought to the Lord in saving faith.  This is what we call believers baptism.  A decision a man or woman makes.  We are not baptised to be saved but baptised because we are saved.  Lydia went out to the riverside “where prayer was wont to be made.”  As she sat among the women folk her heart was opened.  God was dealing with her alone.  God opened up her heart and she believed what Paul was preaching.  She was baptised her and her household.  Baptism came after conversion.  When Paul and Silas were thrown into a prison cell and they lifted their voices in prayer and praise, at midnight a earthquake occurred.  The Philippian jailer quickly realised that all the prison cell doors had been flung open and the prisoners could escape.  He thought of the consequences for him the following morning.  As he was about to take his own life Paul said to him ”do thyself no harm.”  This man who had been beaten and cast into a cold dark cell spoke directly to the jailer.  The jailer realised he didn’t have the peace that Paul had.  He asked the question “what must I do to be saved?”  Paul told him “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house.”  The jailer was baptised that night after his conversion.  It was the work of the Holy Spirit and the word of God, working together.  This man, the Ethiopian eunuch had an important job.  We would class him today as prime minister or chancellor of the exchequer.  He was a very religious man, a devout man, well respected and revered.  People looked up to him.  In verse 27 we read he was coming up from Jerusalem, sitting in his chariot reading from the prophet Isaiah.  Something was beginning to happen in his heart.  The reading was from Isaiah 53 “led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so he opened not his mouth.”  No doubt in Jerusalem he had come into contact with some of the apostles.  Maybe this was the portion he had heard, and he was now pondering over it word by word.  Isn’t it wonderful how a religious person can get so interested in the word of God yet not be saved.  We can sit at the Lord’s table and not be saved.  We can have an interest in the word of God and not be saved. This man returned home but the Holy Spirit brings Philip to him.  He comes to a saving faith.  It is the word of God that brings that light to our souls.  Acts 2 verse 37 “and when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts.”  They heard the message Peter had preached to them about Jesus coming into the world, the many miracles he had done, about his death on Calvary and his resurrection power.  The Holy Spirit was taking the word of God and applying it to their hearts.  “As many as received the word of God were baptised.”  Baptism comes after conversion, and it is believers’ baptism.

The concerns this man had.  This man is saved now.  He has trusted the Lord as his own and personal Saviour.  Now he asks the question “what doth hinder me to be baptised?”  We see the concerns of both this man and Philip.  Philip had a concern for lost souls and the eunuch had a concern for his own soul.  God will bring them both together.  Lydia was in the meeting, but Paul was brought in to preach the word of God.  God brought both together.  Cornelius in Acts 10 was seeking God on his knees.  He knew that something had to happen in his heart.  The angel comes from the throne room of heaven and tells him “when Peter comes, he will tell you words whereby you might be saved.”  God brings them together and Cornelius was saved.  The concerns of Peter and Cornelius. In John 4 Jesus comes to the well where he met a woman who had come out to fill her waterpot.  Jesus “must needs go through Samaria” because he had compassion for one precious soul.  Jesus travelled all that distance for that one precious soul.  Think of the distance he travelled from his father’s throne in heaven.  He wasn’t worried about numbers.  The master has come and he calleth for thee.  Philip preached the word and the eunuch acted on the word preached.  Blessings come as we practice what God says.  The apostle Paul said we should not be hearers only but doers of the word.  James also backed that up.  We can read and study the word of God, but we need to be doers of the word.  Here’s a man now saved who is pressed in his spirit to do something for God.  He was only saved; he had only trusted the Lord, but he is hungry.  He wants to do something for the Lord after his conversion.  Now he is concerned about his witness for Christ.  Surely this is the next step.  Maybe he realised this was the next step for him – to glorify his master.  To go through the waters of baptism.  I see the boldness of Philip.  He left the place where God was using him in Samaria, where there were those getting saved, being healed of demon spirits and there was great joy everywhere in the city.  He left that city to go down the way of the desert.  He meets a train coming and God shows him the very person he should speak to in his chariot.  He is instructed to join himself to that chariot.  He asks the man in the chariot “do you understand what you are reading?”  Notice his boldness in speaking to him.  I am sure this man was well revered, respected and guarded.  He is reading the word of God aloud.  The man answered Philip “how can I understand unless someone explains it to me?”  Philip is welcomed into the chariot who shows him the need of his soul.  In Acts 4 all the believers came together to their own.  They talked among themselves of what had happened earlier in the day and then began to pray – verse 29.  They said, “now Lord behold their threatenings, you know all about them, Lord grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word.”  Philp explained the gospel.  When he came to the end of the message Philip told him how he could be saved and then told him about baptism.  The eunuch was concerned about the next step.  Acts 2 as Peter finished the people cried out “what shall we do?”  Peter replied, “repent and be baptised.”  He was telling them to turn from their sin, confess their sin, acknowledge Christ as Saviour and then be baptised.  We need that concern for souls, to taking the next step for the Lord, to glorify him.  Not to just be stuck in our ways – God wants more.

The conviction of the man.  He was concerned about the next step which worked into deep conviction.  He asks the question “what doth hinder me to be baptised.”  In other words – is there anything hindering me to go through the waters of baptism.

A confirmation of his faith.  Once he heard what Philip had to say he decided to follow in his heart.  Here was a very revered man who sat in the inner circle of Candice.  His advice and decisions were called upon.  He was a man of high ranking but now he was prepared to humble himself before all those people and go through the waters of baptism.  In Acts 8 we read he was a man of great authority, had charge of all Candice’s treasury.  It must have been a humbling step, an act of confirming his faith.  He took Christ as his Saviour and was now confirming his faith before everyone.  He was making his stand.  He told them to stop the chariot and he and Philip went down into the waters of baptism.