October 18, 2026
The Interruption Was The Assignment
- Matt Nickoson
Sermon Notes
Can God love me, even if my body has been disfigured?
Acts 8:26 NIV
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”
God is on the move to find all who will love Him!
Acts 8:27a NIV
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”).
Deuteronomy 23:1 NIV
No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the LORD.
Acts 8:27b-28 NIV
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.
Acts 8:29 NIV
The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
Acts 8:30 NIV
Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.”
Acts 8:31 NIV
“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him”
Acts 8:32-33 NIV
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.”
Acts 8:34 NIV
The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?”
Acts 8:35 NIV
Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
Isaiah 53:10 NIV
Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
Isaiah 56:3-7 NIV
Let no foreigner who is bound to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.” And let no eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.” For this is what the LORD says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant— to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever. And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
Acts 8:36 NIV
As they traveled 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 baptized?”
Acts 8:38 NIV
And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.
If you believe in your heart that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, you are ready to be baptized!
Galatians 3:26-27 NIV
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Acts 8:39 NIV
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.