See, Here is Water

This Sunday we will be looking at the ongoing adventures of Philip the evangelist in Acts 8, focusing on verses 26-40. It is a fascinating story which I am throughly looking forward to exploring with you. In it, we will see Philip, taken from a thriving ministry in Samaria (vv. 5-8), to a desert encounter with an Ethiopian Eunuch. As the Spirit gives him guidance, he shares the good news of Jesus with this man, and the man's heart was open and he received the grace of new life.

We will go into many more details on Sunday, but for today I wanted to focus on the response of the Ethiopian to receiving the good news,  “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. (cf. 37,38). What was it that compelled him to want to be baptized? Surely Philip must have been teaching him of the story of Jesus and his commission to go into all the earth making disciples and baptizing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (cf. Mt. 28:19). As the Ethiopian was beginning to embrace the change that had come over him by the ministry of the Spirit, he too wanted that sign.

But what does that sign do and why was the Ethiopian so eager to receive it? I would posit the following. First, he wanted to be counted among God's people. We will talk Sunday more on just how important this was for the Eunuch, but for all who bear the sign, it is a declaration that they are the Lord's, marked out for Him with all that it entails. Marked out to be loved, to have access to the Father through prayer. Marked out to serve and sometimes to suffer with him. Second, as much as this is an outward sign marking the recipient as belonging to the Lord, it also acts an an inward seal, promising them that in all that they face they have the resources of the gospel at their disposal. How will we make it through all the ups and downs of life? Baptism seals to us that we are not alone, but we belong to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.

Our Westminster Confession of Faith puts it this way in 28.1:
Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible Church; but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in the newness of life. Which sacrament is, by Christ’s own appointment, to be continued in His Church until the end of the world.

The Eunuch knew he was going to be a minority as a Christian in his homeland of North Africa. But baptism marked him as belonging to the Lord and sealed to him all the benefits of the covenant of grace. What a gift for him to be baptized!

And what a gift it is for us all to stop, ponder and receive by faith. If you have been baptized, as an infant or as an adult, you have been marked out for the Lord! There is responsibility in that for sure, but you also have sealed to you from the Father, the promise that all the benefits of grace are yours in Christ. Hallelujah!