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[00:00:00] John: Well, David, we are back and I am absolutely pumped with excitement at what we're gonna start talking about today. We're well into the story of. And we've had just an amazing thought process and conversation around his experience in Samaria and some of the incredible events going on there. 

[00:01:11] And now we're, we're about to see something that's a profound contrast. It's, he goes from the excitement, the buzz, the energy, the crowds of Samaria, and then it's like a, an incredible. Gear shift here as we consider the next part of the story, but it's quite, it's quite a powerful story nonetheless. 

[00:01:31] David: This is one of those stories in acts that I think when you decide to do. A series on acts, it's like, well, this is the story . Because, because at some level, and I think it's worth framing the, this story of, of the, the Ethiopian Munich as, as it's generally tagged as in most translations, I think it is actually a bit of a gateway story. 

[00:01:56] Cuz now we're, it's almost like. if chapters one to eight, and I don't mean this Irreverently John, but if chapters one to eight are the sort of Holy Spirit in the lab, , right. And it's, we're in the laboratory and we're testing out this Holy Spirit. And again, please, I hope nobody hears any irreverence. 

[00:02:15] Cause I don't mean it that way. This Ethiopian Unix story is now going to be the culmination of. is this Holy Spirit really working, has the gospel, genuinely got the power to break down walls, right? And of course, people who are looking ahead and it's okay to look ahead when you're reading the Bible. 

[00:02:34] It's not like, you're cheating and reading the end of the, the, the story before the beginning. You'll notice this story's gonna end and end in's gonna. Paul or Saul, as he's known in, in the Hebrew sort setting, he's he's going to, and he's the one that's gonna take the gospel to every undesirable person. 

[00:02:55] out there. I, and, and I, again, forgive me if that term undesirable, is there, and so this little story that we're about to get in is, I think, is so pivotal because if this story can work, if the Holy Spirit can move here, , then all of our boundaries have been, have been broken down. 

[00:03:12] John: Yeah. 
 

[00:03:13] David: I love Willie Jennings has this little comment where he says, disciples of Jesus must be convinced not only of God's love for the world, but also of God's desire for people, and especially people we have been taught not to desire. 

[00:03:29] Right. And so, so I think I'm excited about this text because it's actually, and I'd love our listeners to hold that it's carrying. A ton of weight that reaches through history to us even today, in my opinion, John? 

[00:03:42] John: Absolutely. Absolutely. And it seems to be a continuation of something we've reflected on as the sort of almost programmatic opening of the Book of Acts when we talked about the spirit coming on this community of believers that they would be witnesses of Jesus in Jerusalem. Well, we've seen that in the first number of chapters of Acts. 

[00:04:03] They've done an amazing job 

[00:04:04] David: They have. 

[00:04:06] John: and it's broken into Samaria and the spirit has fallen in Samaria, and we've had the whole incredible Simon story. Whatever, whatever the falling of the spirit looked like, it absolutely got Simon's attention. And something amazing's happened there. And of course now we're, we're starting to nudge into the rest of the world, and Ethiopian Munich seems to represent, as you say, this sort of gateway moment for that incredible advancement. 

[00:04:34] So, David, I would love if you read the text for us. We're, we're gonna read from X chapter eight on verse 26 and down to the end of the chapter is that, 

[00:04:45] David: It sounds like a lot of fun. So it reads like this. Now, an angel of the Lord said to Philip goes 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 Kentucky, which means the queen of the Ethiopians. 

[00:05:13] 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. Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. Do you understand what you are reading? 

[00:05:33] 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. 

[00:05:55] 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? And then Philip began with that very passage of scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, look, here is water. 

[00:06:26] What can stand in the way of my being baptized? And he gave orders to stop the chariot. And then both Philip and the euch went down into the water and Philip baptized. When they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away and the Euch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 

[00:06:49] Philip, however, appeared at the aas and traveled about preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesar Caesarea 

[00:06:59] John: Wow. Love it. Love it, love it, love it. 

[00:07:02] David: I need a moment, John. I need a moment. 

[00:07:04] John: And of course it is. It is the first recorded African. Convert to the gospel. So it is a moment, it's an amazing moment, but have to say David, the first thing that absolutely struck me will, will lean into all of that. The first thing that struck me was just I, I love this idea that the Holy Spirit was so intentional. 

[00:07:25] In getting to this Ethiopian Munich that he made or asked Philip, leave Samaria and go all the way down to this place. Go south to the road, the desert road that goes from Jerusalem to gas. And I, I, I, I did a little bit, a little bit of map work on that, just to check that out. That's a serious. the likelihood is that Philip would've had to go from Samaria to Jerusalem as the main and safest trading route, and then from Jerusalem across country south towards Gaza. 

[00:08:01] So, so first century Samaria to Jerusalem is about 42 miles. 

[00:08:06] And then Jerusalem Southwest, right down to sort of, the Gaza area is about another 50 miles. 

[00:08:16] David: Right. 

[00:08:16] John: like that, that's a 92 ish mile journey. I don't know what that is in kilometers, cuz I still speak in old money 

[00:08:25] as far as travel is concerned. 

[00:08:28] But that's a journey, right? I, I mean when, when you just pause for a moment and read that slowly goes south to the road, the desert road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza. You can just miss the fact. Hold on a minute, that's, that's a close to a hundred mile journey. That, that the Holy Spirit is asking Philip to take four. 

[00:08:50] Now, he wouldn't have been on his own, he'd been in a caravan of travelers without question. He'd a, he had a, had a, a fairly large contingency with them, but essentially it's a, it's the guts of a hundred mile journey for one man. That's a cool idea, right? I, I sort of love 

[00:09:07] that idea.  

[00:09:07] David: so, so 40 miles is just over 60 kilometers, and so then, so I, then there's another 50 miles. I was I was trying to do the math of this when you were talking. I ran a 60 kilometer race once, John, and I can absolutely guarantee you that I was not, At the end of that race in the place that I could have discussed Isaiah and, and how much I love discussing Isaiah , but the idea that I would have to do that again and some, and then be in, in the place to have a, a good conversation with somebody 

[00:09:40] John: Serious, isn't it? Isn't it serious? So, so you, you, you sort of read that verse, verse 26 and a number of things really strike you. That, that, that, like Philip, first of all is in the middle of a full on like move of the Holy Spirit in Samaria. 

[00:09:56] and, and you would think, right, the Holy Sprout would want him to stay there, start discipling people, start getting all of that organized. 

[00:10:02] But it's like, no, in, in the thick of all of that, the Holy Sprout takes him away or asks him to go, and he goes from a crowd to an individual, essentially. 

[00:10:13] But the personal cost to Philip on that journey is one where he's having to expand energy. Work hard just to get to this person. And of course it's not even clear in verse 26 why he's going there. 

[00:10:31] Do you know it is just go. Just go south. And, and doesn't it just, just that sense of, my goodness, there's a lot going on there, even in that little request to go south and, and doesn't it speak of something of the glorious, not only disruptive presence of the spirit that we've been referring to. 

[00:10:49] Here's the Holy Spirit disrupting Phillip's opportunity to minister in Samaria. I'm sure if it was left to Philipp, he would wanna stay there, but also, Glorious idea that now the spirit wants to disrupt the life of the Ethiopian Munich, and he wants to get into a world that at the moment is closed to him. 

[00:11:07] And I just love the intentionality of the simplicity of that verse, which most of us will miss because we're rushing to the action. We're rushing to the, to the, the big punchlines of the conversation with the Ethiopian. But my goodness, verse 26 Rocks. 

[00:11:22] David: absolutely. And, and I think that there's, I mean, I, there's so much weight in this. I think the Like the intensity of it. I, I made a joke about. , having attempted to, to run a 60 kilometer race once. But you notice, notice Phillips sent on a, on a hundred mile journey, give or take, as you've said. 

[00:11:43] Right. I have some friends that run a hundred mile races and they're not in the state to discuss Isaiah afterwards either. I know that. But just notice verse 30, that when when he finally does interact and the spirit says, go to that chariot, Philip runs to it, So, There's an intensity to this like this. 

[00:12:04] There's an, although it's not explicitly in the text, Philip has felt the urgency of this. You need to go South, Philip. And it, there's almost the sense that he's gone quickly on that way, now we of course, don't know how far along the journey he actually intersects with this man, but, but he's definitely not hanging around. 

[00:12:25] Philip feels this sense of the urgency here, and, and, and I think there's a, there's a little nuance as well. I, I, there's some scholars have worked around the idea of this freezing, of the ends of the earth in certain contexts being used to talk about the. Unknown southern routes. Right? I, I, I, I think we could, I I, one of these, I don't wanna build your house upon it, but this, this story is, is one of these little throw you talked about the programmatic nature. 

[00:12:57] It's this little throwback, go be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. And the ends of the earth, the end, there's just the unknown. What is beyond, for a lot of centuries people were like, where, like where is the Nile and how does that, we know there's this big river and we know there's a lot down there, but we're not really sure about it. 

[00:13:16] There's the Western explorers, we're, we're kind of figuring the way around there. Significance at one level, that this is just one man, but he's also somebody who is hugely significant because I, I think it's important to note that when, when we talk about the, the translations, talk about the Ethiopians at this point in history, This term is almost synonymous with Africans. 

[00:13:46] Right? So what, so what we would say in, in the contemporary world that, oh, this is someone from Africa. You find the Greco Roman writers would use the term Ethiopia. Right? Their knowledge of Africa is, is, is very sketchy at this point. And, and they're definitely so, so this is not just somebody from one particular country. 

[00:14:07] This person represents a continent, and of course, a continent that has huge significance for the gospel. And even to this day. It's fascinating how often we hear people talk about the decline of Christianity. And I always say to my friends, whenever we hear people talk about the decline of Christianity, you know that that person isn't talking about world Christianity because Christianity is not declining in Africa, right? 

[00:14:32] And so, so, so there's this beautiful, I think, prophetic thing going on in this, in this text about God. God's heart for Africa. And, and, and by that I mean not in the colonialistic way that we've done it in the past, right? Where we've moved into Africa and told them how to be, notice the end of this story, this man is baptized and then left on his. 

[00:14:59] Own right . And so he doesn't need, and I'm, and I'm overreading the text here, John, but I think it's an important point to make. He doesn't need the, the foreign missionary to go with him into Africa and establish the gospel. Instead, he is released by the spirit. Off the back of a Bible study on Isaiah and a baptism ceremony to now this, this eunuch becomes the gospel announcement to Africa. 

[00:15:26] Right? And, and I think there's been so much abuse done in Africa in the name of Christianity that to me this story serves as a foil to what. Really intends this sort of work to look like. And that might be a little too heavy early on in the podcast, but I mean, bear in mind John, to be fully explicit. I'm talking about this as somebody who grew up as a missionary kid in Africa. 

[00:15:51] So, so I, I have seen some of the, the kind of dark sides of what Christianity did in Africa, but also the beautiful stuff that the Holy Spirit is doing today in contrast to what people think is going on with the Holy Spirit and the rest of the world. Does that, does that make. 

[00:16:05] John: Yeah. It does. It does. Absolutely. And, and, and I love that there is a, there is a sense of that sort of go south, go down, that there, there's a, a sort of a nuance within hip brake tax that, that when you go up, you go towards, when you go down, you go away and there's this sort of sense of Philip is going down, he's going south of Jerusalem, going and there's almost a sense in. 

[00:16:31] Is it deliberate here that the Holy Spirit having sent, or Philip having gone to Samaria, which was up to sort of the beginning of chapter eight, a no-go area, really there, there's no strategy to reach Samaria from the early church up to that point. There's no conversation about Samaria apart from max one eight, 

[00:16:54] and Philip goes there, and then it's like, Is this, is this a man with a heart towards the margins? 

[00:17:02] He comes from a a Greek hell nice context. So there's a comfort with a world beyond Jerusalem. 

[00:17:09] And he is the one that gets sent away from Jerusalem, south of Jerusalem, away from the epicenter. It really feels like, at a very literal sense, but also at a sort of a, a strongly Imaged sense. We're moving now away, 

[00:17:26] we're moving beyond. 

[00:17:28] There's something happening, and then the language of go south, go down. I think, I think there's also a sense in which now Philip is moving into not just geographic uncharted territory, but no mission. Uncharted territory and we're about to collide with someone who even, even the rules of Torah would've suggested remains firmly on the margins in certain areas. 

[00:17:59] So, so this, this becomes a powerful, powerful tipping point moment, I think. And, and, and if we don't rush past those little nuances, I, I think they're very, they're deeply powerful in, in what's about to happen now. 

[00:18:13] David: I would want to even potentially push a little stronger than that, John, in terms of, I, I think that this, this person, This is, I think this is the genius of Luke, you see. So, that, that, that he is, he's doing this thing, which I think if you read enough, Luke, , Luke loves to do this. 

[00:18:32] In contrast, I was thinking about over the Christmas period, the way Luke introduced the story of how, in the year. Of, the reign of King Herod, Caesar Augustus called, and he, he, he brings all the big people, and then he tells you this other story about Jesus and shepherds, and he's doing things with that. 

[00:18:49] I think this teaches us that when we read Luke, listen to his introductions, listen to how he frames and describes things, and I think what he's doing with this, with this person is basically saying, this is a absolute unequivocal. Outsider, In the own model. Right. So, so they're, they're from the ends of the earth. 

[00:19:12] They're from the bit of the world that we don't know. Basically, all Africans south of Egypt are Ethiopian. It's a, it's a, it's just a world out there that we. Haven't heard of and don't know about. He's gentile, right? Like as you said earlier, he's the first black person that we 

[00:19:28] John: Hmm 
 

[00:19:29] David: definitely know of in, in acts that, that, that, that's been introduced to this story so far. 

[00:19:36] He's also a eunuch, right? Which Deuteronomy has in ju is 23. Deuteronomy 23. The, the eunuchs are expressly excluded from the assembly of the Lord. So, so, so. . I think he's the quintessential image of exclusion, . And it's that, and this is why, I mean, this is why this text to me is so exciting, because, because Luke is just, you've got this, Philip is barreling down the road. 

[00:20:04] I love the idea that he's running . He's, he's barreling down the road at the bequest of the Holy Spirit towards somebody who will not fit. Into our old paradigm. And just to add to the complexity of it, and, and I'm gonna try and choose my words carefully, cuz I, I, I don't want to cause awkward conversations for parents that maybe have children listening in, in the back of their car while they're driving. 

[00:20:32] The nature of being a eunuch will let somebody Google that if they need to. The nature of being a eunuch is unrecoverable, right? . So, so this is not fixable. So the Torah says this person cannot come into the assembly of the Lord, and this is not something we can fix. It's not a behavioral thing. It is now, it is rooted in. 

[00:20:57] Identity for at some level that you know now, whether it's been, quite often it was done to slaves, it wasn't their choice. So, there's no kind of question that needs to be explored in that. But this isn't one of those situations where, well, I was a robber and now I've come to faith, and now I'm not gonna rob people anymore. 

[00:21:14] This man's identity has to cross over into his saved life and. . And so I think the question when we eventually get to it, and I feel like there's a few episodes in this chapter, , but I think when we get to is what stops me from being baptized is not a rhetorical question. The both of them know the answer to that question and the Holy Spirit's now going to test it. 

[00:21:40] And I maybe I'm too excited about that, John, but that's what I think Luke is making sure Luke is grabbing you by the lapels and saying, don't miss what's going on here. 

[00:21:50] John: Yeah. And, and for me, sort of like, I, I'm very excited about that. For me, there is a glorious, magnificent god incidental moment where when we meet the Ethiopian, he happens to be reading the prophet Isaiah. Now he's, yeah, so he's, he's reading, he's reading a bit later on in the text, but. , but just a little bit earlier are are, are, are later in that Isaiah text that you'd say There is an incredible word to Unix. 

[00:22:21] In fact, Jesus picks up on  

[00:22:23] this passage when he talks about the temple. We've touched on this before, and an Isaiah 56. It says these incredible words to the Unix who keep my sabbaths, who choose what pleases. And hold faster. My cabinet to them, I will give within my temple and its walls, a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters. 

[00:22:50] I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever. Look at this David. Verse six. Isaiah 53 and foreigners. Who bind themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord and to be a servants all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and hold faster. My C. These I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer under burnt offerings, and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar for my house will be. 

[00:23:27] A house of prayer for all the nations, and he concludes the sovereign Lord declares he who gathers the exiles of Israel. I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered. And I just, for me, I mean I'm, I'm, I'm struggling to contain my emotion thinking here is a unique. However, he became a eunuch excluded at one level, and yet the very prophet that he's reading from prophesize that there will come a day when people like him will be. 

[00:24:10] Completely included and that they will be carriers of God. I, I love, I love the phrase there that actually those that, that bind themselves to the Lord and minister to love the name of Lord and to be his servants. I mean, this is in essence. What? What's going on? Here's a man who's traveled all the way from Ethiopia to the Temple of God, and he can't get in it. He's not actually allowed in. He's not even allowed into the court of the Gentiles.  

[00:24:43]  
 

[00:24:43] Because he's because of his condition, and yet he's going home with the scroll of the prophet Isaiah on his knee sort of thing. 

[00:24:54] Thi this is pointing to a man who. Deeply, deeply searching for God. This is, this is a man who's searching for something beyond himself, and I think it's a glorious God incidental magnificent irony that he's reading Isaiah, a different bit of Isaiah Grant you, but he's reading Isaiah the prophet who prophesize the inclusion of men like him into the gospel. 

[00:25:19] I, I just, I just find it, I find it just overwhelming, magnificent. 

[00:25:25] David: But the, the whole, the whole thing, John, is like, you can, you can almost get this sense that, that, they head off and have this bible study. Right. Which, and I'm just going to, John, I, I, I love to try and bring this into the modern day life. I've taken a lot of trains and buses in my life, and I've never. 

[00:25:42] Ever got on a train or a bus and found somebody reading Isaiah and so I've been on all the wrong trains and buses. The interesting of course, just just to note, how does Philip know what he's reading is, it's actually not until about the third or fourth century that anybody in recorded history reads in their head. 

[00:26:00] So reading even on your own is done out loud. Right. So, so, so he 

[00:26:04] John: which I do today as well. I,  

[00:26:06] David: It's a good thing to do. 

[00:26:07] It's a 
 

[00:26:07] good  
 

[00:26:08] John: thing to  

[00:26:08] David: do. It's well, even, even just in the memorization process, when you hear and see, it's easier to remember stuff, which is important. But, but also, I think there's something deeper than that, so that's a pro two text tip. Read your Bible out loud and warn your family first. But but I think there's some deep spirituality to be found in, in, in it actually. And so, Your family will probably think you're going mad if you don't tell them that you're doing it. Which I always find is ironic because the first time that a monk is recorded reading in his head, all of his friends thought he'd gone mad because he's just sat there staring at a book , so, but to, to the point he's reading Isaiah 53. 

[00:26:51] John: Mm  
 

[00:26:52] David: the text that you just read for us is from Isaiah 56. Right. About, about, the Unix and, and also beautiful that I, I hope, I hope listeners picked up on that. That's the line that Jesus uses when he clears the temple. Right. It's, it's the same text that we've recirc back to that Jesus when people were being excluded from the temple, right? 

[00:27:12] So, I mean, the resonance there, goodness as a whole, we could deter into a whole podcast there for a second. But you know, this excluded man is reading a text. , I'm not sure what to do with it. And a few chapters later, there is the very checks that Jesus cited that is against exclusion and, and name checks him right As, as, as the euch. 

[00:27:34] But what's interesting to me is you get this known as the fourth servant song in, in, in Isaiah. So Asiah 52, verse 13 through to 50. 53 verse 12. Please go read it and, and, and actually continue reading cuz 54 chapter one, which you will normally read as a text to women, but just think about the context that we are in here about a eunuch sing or barren one who did not bear burst into song and shout you who have not been in labor. 

[00:28:07] Right. For the children of the desolate woman will be more than the children of her that is married, says the Lord. Enlarge the sight of your tent and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out. Do not hold back, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. I mean, go South, Philip 

[00:28:25] Go, go South, Philip. And, and, and so Philip. Standing the reach of the kingdom of God and finds a man reading this exact passage. Right. And. Your maker is your husband. The disgrace and shame of your youth are gone. I'm just picking out highlight points, the, like the days of Noah, I swore that I would never go over the earth in anger again. 

[00:28:48] But my steadfast love will not depart from you. I mean, think of how it's building, nations. Do not know will run to you because the Lord your God has glorified you. Seek the Lord and he will be found right. And I mean this is a text and then it rolls into, go out in joy and be led back in peace. 

[00:29:10] The mountains in the hills before you shall burst into song, right? I mean, GI is building, isn't it? Then you get and let the eunuch not say, I am just a dry tree. And then it rolls straight into the text that you've just read. I mean, I'm trying to imagine another scenario than Phillips saying to the eunuch, well, we just need to keep reading and that's what's gonna make sense of this. 

[00:29:34] I, I mean, do you, I It's hard to disagree. I would think. 

[00:29:37] John: it's, it's stunning. It's stunning. And again, big picture, big picture. You can just see the magnificent providential care of the Lord. Here, Philip is sent to a man who just happens to be reading Isaiah, who just happens to be a Gentile, who just happens to be a Munich, and he just happens to be leaving Jerusalem, 

[00:30:00] David: yes. Wanting to worship and unable to, 

[00:30:03] John: Ah, it's, it's just it's just absolutely to me, it, it, it, it, the series of coincidences or God incidences in this story are another example to me of the magnificence. And we, you, you, you earlier on referenced that these contrast moments of Luke and, and here's this magnificent contrast of Samaria filled with. 

[00:30:26] People, it's buzzing, it's alive, it's happening, it's miracles are happening. It's all kicking off. And then we're brought in to the sanctity of this individual experience, this person interesting, but don't even know his name. , but he's just described in the context of his ethnic origin, not even his color, just his ethnic origin, which is a very biblical way of describing people sort of from their, from where they are from. 

[00:30:53] And of course he's going back there but now, now impacted by the gospel. And, and I just love the fact that even though this, we, we've been reflecting on the power of the spirit at the center of this engagement is the word of. 

[00:31:08] So this is the Holy Spirit absolutely orchestrating this moment. There's no question, but but. 

[00:31:15] They, they gather around the word of God. It is the word of God that becomes the life giving energizing moment of this man's transformation. And, and the fact that it just happens to be, forgive my language listeners, Jesus' favorite prophet that they're reading from, and you go, come, come on. And, and can I just, just a little practical aside note, David, for a man like this to acquire the scroll of. We're, talking, this would've cost him a fortune. 

[00:31:47] David: Yes. 
 

[00:31:47] John: I mean, these scrolls were copied by hand. 

[00:31:51] David: Yes, 
 

[00:31:51] John: It, these are not mass provi produced books. These are individually scribed scrolls. And I don't even know how a man like that managed to get his hands on a scroll, but he would've had to pay serious. Serious cash, which again is, we, we've talked about the urgency of the story. Philip Gooth urgency. Philip runs to the chariot urgency. Here's a man, it looks like he's sort of placidly reading, but that scroll that he's reading, he would've probably have had to search to Jerusalem 

[00:32:24] and paid a fortune to get. 

[00:32:26] and, and again, it's showing urgency, intent, passion, something else is going on. This is not just a bloke looking for a little bit of a, a blessing. This is a man on a serious search and he collides with a serious evangelist, searching for people. It's, it's amazing, isn't it? It's just 

[00:32:44] David: it's phenomenal. And, and also perhaps, I mean, there's so much more to say about this, so, we'll, we'll, don't worry we're not, we're gonna say it in a different episode, but, but just the way this episode shaped up to talk about this man, perhaps just, can I throw in just one final comment that's really interesting, is that he has left, and I've alluded to it. 

[00:33:05] But he's then just left on his own right. Like Philip just disappears, which is like, we know the story from our side, . What did the man think was going on, right? So he then heads home with his scroll of Isaiah. Know, and again, I mean, has he, has he been, he's in charge of the treasury of the Kak. 

[00:33:25] Has he been sent on? Is this the mission that he's been on? Go and get that text for us. Right. Maybe there's some, you, some sort of communities that are, are, are, are kind of cross light, it's all supposition at this stage. He ends up back home with nothing but a scroll of Isaiah and the holy. 

[00:33:46] and a baptism story, right? What's fascinating is Christian history then becomes very western over the next few hundred years. Like you go to school and you learn Christian history. It's all Rome, Greece, everything like this, right? It's a violent history, right? There's, there's persecutions, there's riots, there's all this sort of, and then all of a sudden in about the 32nd, eh, again, a second, let me, I'm not a great Christian historian. 

[00:34:16] I, my, my focus area is normally the New Testament period, but then in the next few hundred years, People like Augustine appear, right? And guess where he's from? He's African. And we often don't think of Augustine like that. A lot of church art lets us down on this. We, we don't see Augustine as a black bishop in that sense, but, but he appears, and, and North African Christianity seems to be vibrant. 

[00:34:41] We find text of the earliest text of the New Testament that we found are, are from Africa, right? The. and the only thing we know is that Philip met an Ethiopian on a road a and I just, I, I just wanna make that point. I don't wanna make too much of that point, but I think there's a lot to be made that's quietly out of the gaze of the Western world, right? 

[00:35:06] Where we think all centers around us. The Holy Spirit was growing and some of the great voices of the church 

[00:35:13] John: so good. 

[00:35:14] David: seemed to track their. Story through here, and I, I just think that's a, a gorgeous thought, to, to hold onto to how the Holy Spirit works. 

[00:35:25] John: It's beautiful and, and doesn't it give you tremendous confidence in the Lord himself and in the power of His word and in the power of the Spirit. I, I couldn't help but hear the echo of legion. You know the man that gets called legion, although that's not his name. When Jesus delivers him, the man wants to climb into the boat with Jesus, 

[00:35:43] David: Yeah. 
 

[00:35:44] John: and Jesus says, no, no, no, no, you, you go. 

[00:35:46] And you preach and you proclaim what I've done for you, 

[00:35:50] David: Mm-hmm. 

[00:35:51] John: and I just sort of think, wow, Jesus had such confidence in the word of God, in the kingdom of God, in the power of God, that he says to the man. Okay, you, you, you go and be my evangelist quite literally my evangelist, my proclaimer of the gospel. 

[00:36:06] And I can't help but hear the same thing here. And sometimes we, we think we need A, we need B, we need C, we need D before we've gotta line all the docs up before we can do anything. And here is the book of just showing us that the Holy Spirit actually with what looks like very, very little on the surface. Bring Transformational. And again, David, I I am reminded of our previous podcast where we talked about the kingdom. What is the kingdom of God like? It is like a little yeast that is worked into the dough 

[00:36:44] and it slowly transforms the whole thing. What's it like? It's like a seed. The smallest of seeds planted, and what does it become? 

[00:36:51] A large tree in which the birds of the air set. And I think we're seeing, again, this incredible confidence that. Where's the follow up program here? Well, there, there is none. The prophet Isaiah is the follow up program. The Holy Spirit is the follow up program, and somehow with just that, 

[00:37:10] the Kingdom of God and the Church of Jesus Christ expand in the continent of Africa through this amazing man who still remains the endless in the public text