It was supernatural, okay?

Steve Brown:
It was supernatural, okay? Let’s talk about it on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
This is Key Life here to let Christians know that God isn’t mad at them. Keep listening and you’ll hear that because of what Jesus has done, you’re welcomed home into the family of God because of his radical grace free from the penalties of sin and never alone in your suffering.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. We’re looking at the eighth chapter in the conversion of the the eunuch, the Ethiopian eunuch. And it’s a classic story of what’s happened a billion times since it happened with this Ethiopian, all of the elements of evangelism and good news are here. He’s baptized. He rejoices, that ought to be the result of anybody coming to Jesus, not a very sad thing, the cross before me, the world behind me. In other words, all the fun has stopped and now I got to die. I guess, I guess there’s some problem to that. Chalmers said, when he was converted, he had a poem he wrote, now I must spend my life in tears. No, you don’t. Just like the Ethiopian, now you can dance, now you can laugh. Well, we talked about that yesterday and we’re going to talk more about the conversion of the Ethiopian, but I do want to go down just one fairly quick side road. And you’ll find that in the 39th verse, after this encounter with Ethiopian eunuch, Luke writes in the text and this is at verse 39.

And when they came up out of a water,

The baptism had just taken place.

the Spirit of the Lord caught up Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more.

Now, I’ve been taught by scholars and I’ve read the commentaries and there are some exceptions, but very few, almost all of those who know, and they have PhDs, so they know, say this is not a report of a supernatural event. They say that is simply saying that Phillip said I’ve done what I was supposed to do. My work is through, don’t thank me, I’m out of here, and he left. But then you look at the text and you go, but it doesn’t say that. It says he was caught up. It sounds like a Star Trek kind of thing, where he just kind of disappears and shows up some other place. And I kind of feel like this is a supernatural event. George Abihider, who does a lot of work for us in editing. He lives in Mississippi, used to be here all the time, but his mother got sick and he, God bless him, felt that he needed to be with her. And so, he took a bunch of equipment. And he does a lot of work, especially in video and audio editing as he’s always done for the last 10 years for Key Life. But at any rate, I used to do a weekly message to pastors. Don’t have time to do it anymore, but every week I would sit in my chair behind my desk. And have a 5 or 10 minute talk with pastors. And George said, I’m going to try something new with you. I said, what are you going to do? He said, well, when we filmed this, I want you to sit in your chair, then I’m going to stop the camera, then I want you to get out of your chair and then I’ll start the camera. And then I want you to get back in your chair and I’ll start the camera again. You know what he did, he did a Star Trek thing with me and with smoke. And so, I was sitting there and I said, I’ll be back. And, all of a sudden there was smoke and my chair was empty. And then he had me come back and sit back down in the chair, as if by magic. And it was fun. And we got a lot of comments, some were quite negative, but most realized it was fun and they enjoyed it as much as we did. But when I read this text, it kind of sounds like that’s what happened to Philip. We wince because we’re sophisticated. We are embarrassed because we live in a cultured society. We sometimes explain supernatural events in natural terms because that’s what the educated do. Well, stop it. The Bible is a book that is supernatural, recording supernatural actions by a supernatural God, directed his favor on his supernatural people. And sometimes we forget that, especially if you’re a Presbyterian. If you’re a Presbyterian, there are certain things that are simply not permissible. Who was the lady who went to a Presbyterian church and I’m a Presbyterian and proud of it. And I wouldn’t say you have to be to get to heaven, but if I were you, I wouldn’t take a chance. And she came into this church and she just couldn’t stand it anymore. And she jumped up and said, praise God. And an usher. And an elder came up to her and said, Madam, you can’t do that in this place. Well, maybe we should do that more in this place. Maybe we should pray for the sick more in this place. Maybe we should expect that a big God will do big things in this place. Maybe we should recognize that God is bigger than anybody ever thought. And he does stuff that is amazing and wonderful and supernatural. Just a little bit of faith, a little more faith. And if we ask him, he’ll give it to us, would cause that to happen. Supernatural God, supernatural events. It’s cool. You think about that. Amen. It’s Wednesday and sometimes on Wednesdays, I take some time to answer one or two questions, of the many questions we get from you folks. And we love your questions. As you know, Pete comes in on Fridays and we spend the entire broadcast dealing with questions, and we love to get your questions. You can dial 1-800-KEY-LIFE, 24 7, when you have a question, record it and we sometimes put your voice on the air, asking the question. Or you can write to

Key Life Network

P.O. Box 5000

Maitland, Florida, 32794

In Canada, it’s

Key Life Canada
P.O. Box 28060
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8

Or you can e-mail us at [email protected]. And all of those places, should you be called to stand with us financially are places where you could help? If you can, please do. By the way, you can give on your phone, you can text Key Life at 28950 and just follow the instructions. Now, we recognize that some of you don’t feel led to support this ministry financially or can’t. And we understand that, say a prayer for us. But if you can help, we promise to squeeze every dime for the glory of God. You can charge it on your credit card, include it in your envelope. And we’ll rise up and call you blessed and so will a whole lot of other people. Alright, let’s turn to one or two of these questions. This is an interesting one and we get it fairly often. Can you shed some light on some passages in Leviticus that would seem to permit, if not outright endorse slavery? Well, I can do that, but before I do that, there’s something that needs to be said. You know that there is slavery in many countries of the world right now. And do you know why? Because they’re not Christian. There is slavery promoted in many places that have never heard of Christ. And that’s the reason because bottom line, Wilberforce, the abolitionist movement that started with him and many of his, and you need to read Eric Metaxas book on Wilberforce to see this. All of that was Christian, in fact, every major social justice reform movement in the history of the world, find its roots in Biblical revelation. And so, what about Leviticus? God, doesn’t say stop your slavery. He does create Jubilee, so slaves are set free. He doesn’t say, stop doing what you’re doing because it’s dead wrong and you can’t do that. But he does talk about respect and valuing human beings, but God always speaks in the context of the culture and the people to which he speaks. God was beginning stuff in Leviticus. And we need to remember that. And throughout the Bible, there is a process that culminates in the coming of Christ. And in that there is the reality of the abolition of slavery. And that’s a Biblical concept. In the early church, everything changed. Did you know that in some of the early churches, the master would be under the authority of the slave, who was the elder in the church? Did you know, that equality was predisposed and pre-taught and prepared for in Scripture? So, yeah, there are times when slavery and other things, polygamy for instance, were a part of what was going on in the culture. God has a plan. He doesn’t do everything yesterday. He does as he pleases and he does it right well, and when he does it right well, things change, in your life and my life, in nations and in cultures. That’s why social justice is cool, but Biblical justice is true. And it should make a difference for all of us who call ourselves Christian. Is slavery abdicated, no, but it is understood as were a lot of other things, but God was in the business of fixing them. And someday, it’s all going to be fixed. Hey, I’ve got to go. But first, Key Life is a listener’s reported production of Key Life Network.