Recreate Church, Pastor Michael Shockley—Service, August 20, 2023

W-A-T-E-R Today, Pastor Michael is departing from his study of the book of Mark and talking about baptism and its meaning. We’re in Acts today, in the early days of the Christian movement, a few years after the Resurrection, when most of the believers were centered in Jerusalem.  An angel of the Lord comes to Philip, tells him to head to Gaza, and doesn’t tell him why. But he IS an angel, and Philip IS obedient, so he heads out.  About halfway there, he encounters an important Ethiopian man.  This was not purely a lucky meeting; it was why the angel sent Philip.  The story continues with the two meeting and Philip discovering he is an important Ethiopian, reading the book of Isaiah and not understanding it completely.  He was having difficulty understanding whom the passage was referring to.  Philip explained that it was Jesus who was being referred to, not Isaiah.  The Ethiopian requested that he be baptized, and he was done so with Philip.  When the Ethiopian came out of the water, the Holy Spirit miraculously carried Philip away to his next appointment! Water baptism is the outward symbol of inward transformation.  WATER = Wash Away The past Emerge Renewed! Verses can be found in Acts 8: 26-40. Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.