Life Together 

Immersed
Sunday - February 8th 

 This Sunday Simon Lace brings us the talk in the latest of our EBC services. We encourage you to reflect on the bible text and join us in the prayer that follows below.

Acts 8:26-40 (NIVUK)
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Go south to the road – the desert road – that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’  So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means ‘queen of the Ethiopians’). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, ‘Go to that chariot and stay near it.’

Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ Philip asked.
 ‘How can I,’ he said, ‘unless someone explains it to me?’ So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:
 ‘He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
    and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
   In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
    Who can speak of his descendants?
    For his life was taken from the earth.’

 The eunuch asked Philip, ‘Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?’  Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
As they travelled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptised?’  And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptised him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing.  Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and travelled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

Prayer
Loving God, thank you for the work of Your Holy Spirit in leading people to Jesus, and to baptism. Amen.

Questions to Consider

1. What is your understanding of “believers’ baptism”?
2. Were you baptised as a child, confirmed, baptised as a believer or some combination of these things?
3. What do you make of the idea that baptism is similar to a wedding, in the sense of it being an occasion in which “a pre-existing and personal love is being declared, witnessed and put on record publicly”, as Simon put it in the talk?
4. What barriers might there have been to the Ethiopian eunuch, under the Mosaic law?
5. Is there anything you think that needs to be true before someone is baptised?
6. The second article of the Baptist Union of Great Britain’s “Declaration of Principle” states: That Christian Baptism is the immersion in water into the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, of those who have professed repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ who 'died for our sins according to the Scriptures; was buried, and rose again the third day'. What do you make of this?
7. If you have not been baptised as a believer, what’s stopping you?