The Eunuch by Philip

Last week (Jan 11th 09) we looked at Baptism: John, Jesus and the Apostles. No-one really took any notes as far as I know, but Eilidh took a few at the start so I've put them in this blog.

We went round the table saying what baptism meant:

-Under the water - total immersion

-Symbolic of death and resurrection

-Baptism in order to be saved

-Cleansing of sins

-Need for repentance

The first recorded baptism was the crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus 14. We know this was a baptism because 1 Cor 10 says 'For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea...'

The first literal baptism is Matt 3:6 'and they were baptised by him (John) in the river Jordan, confessing their sins'.



So... this week we were told to look at the eunuch by Philip (Acts 8) and it seems I'm first so I'm starting off the blog.
It was only after I was looking at the online version of Acts 8 that I realised my Bible (an ESV) had missed out verse 37 - 'And Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." And he replied, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." ' and then the eunuch was baptised. He was obviously a religious man because he'd come all the way from Ethiopia to worship at Jerusalem (verse26) and once he'd understood all the fundamentals he asked to be baptised, he knew it was the right thing to do. --I guess it shows that we don't have to know (or can't ever know) the Bible inside out because no-one ever could.

(sorry - just got distracted by a site i just found http://www.ondoctrine.com/10chdelp.htm - what??!)