Among the deacons in the early church was a man named Philip. One day, while he was traveling, he met an Ethiopian eunuch who was returning home after worshiping God in Jerusalem. As he traveled, he was reading from the Book of Isaiah, a book in the Old Testament filled with prophecies written centuries before they were fulfilled. One prophecy spoke of the Messiah—the Savior who would come, bear the sins of mankind, and die in their place. This was written about 700 years before Jesus came. While reading that passage, the eunuch asked Philip, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this—of himself or of some other man?”

Through this, we can see this clearly: everything written in the Old Testament was pointing toward someone. God spoke ahead of time through the prophets and had those words written down. This means He already knew what He would do and revealed it beforehand. From our perspective, we can see that whatever God says in advance will surely come to pass. And this is true. The words written in the Bible will surely be fulfilled. This is why we must believe in Jesus and live a life of faith—because everything God has spoken in Scripture will certainly be accomplished.

I wasn’t born a believer either. I came to believe in Jesus as an adult—when I was a college junior, which is actually one of the hardest times to start believing. Until then, I even looked down on people who believed in Jesus. But after I believed, what truly amazed me was that the words written in the Bible were being fulfilled. For example, something written three thousand years ago was fulfilled two thousand years ago. Something written twenty-seven hundred years ago was also fulfilled two thousand years ago. That alone is remarkable. But what truly surprised me was this: things written two thousand years ago are being fulfilled right now. In whom? In me. A book written two thousand years ago was being fulfilled in me. And it wasn’t just one or two things. Some scholars say there are over twenty thousand prophecies in the Old Testament about the coming Savior. And because those things happened long ago, we can look back and see that they were all fulfilled. That itself is amazing. But the truth is, unless something happens to us personally, it doesn’t really touch our hearts. Yet many of the promises Jesus made two thousand years ago have been fulfilled in my life. When I look back on my life after believing, there are not one or two, not tens or hundreds, but thousands—countless moments—when God’s word was fulfilled for me. And what makes it even more amazing is this: many of those things were not experiences I had before. Some even seemed impossible. Yet if the Bible said it, it happened.

Let me give you an example from the Bible. It says, “They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” That sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it? Of course, there is a condition: “If My words abide in you, and you abide in Me.” In other words, when we believe and obey the words of Jesus, these things happen. “They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” I had never experienced anything like that before. Whenever someone in my family got sick, I would worry first and then take them to the hospital. But after I believed in Jesus, I began to experience that promise being fulfilled in me. And it didn’t happen years later—it happened in the very first week after I believed. I laid my hands on someone who was sick. I wasn’t someone who prayed a lot, either. But even then, that promise was fulfilled. Three months after I came to believe, I went to the army. In the army, it’s not easy to visit a hospital or get medicine right away, so there are always people who aren’t well—headaches, leg pain, back pain. Whenever I saw someone like that, I laid hands on them. And remember, I had only believed for three months. But when I laid hands on the sick, I saw the promise of Jesus come true. They would say, “Oh, Wait—it’s gone! It feels better!” I heard that so many times.

There is another promise in the Bible: “You will cast out demons.” Jesus said, “If you believe in Me, you will cast out demons in My name.” I didn’t discover this by reading the Bible on my own after I believed. In our church, Sungrak Church, we don’t treat what is written in Scripture lightly, and our pastor—along with the senior believers who were nurtured in this truth—always reminded us that these promises are given to everyone who believes in Jesus. Before I took my faith seriously, I had visited a few other churches with my friends, and there I sometimes heard people say things like, “Casting out demons is just a metaphor,” or, “Healing the sick simply means healing the sickness of the heart.” But when I came to Sungrak Church, I experienced something completely different. I learned that believers truly have the power to lay hands on the sick and heal them. And I learned that when we cast out demons, they fear us and flee. I had always been afraid of demons—never did I imagine that demons would fear me.

Not long after I came to believe in Jesus—while I still had almost no experience—I was sent to the army. That was where I tried casting out a demon for the first time. Because I was trying hard to live my faith, my unit let me come up during our worship time to share something. There were about two hundred soldiers in the service. One day they told me to come forward and talk about faith. Because I was a new believer, I walked up shaking. And I started talking about demons. I didn’t really know what I was supposed to say, and honestly, I wanted to show these people that demons are real and that they bow before the name of Jesus. So after talking about demons for a while, I said, “If your heart is trembling, or you feel uneasy or troubled, raise your hand! If you come forward, I will cast the demon out!” But no one raised a hand. I waited. I think I waited two minutes, but it felt like twenty. Finally—thankfully—one senior soldier raised his hand and came forward. So I did exactly what I had seen others do: I put my hand on his waist, stared into his eyes, and shouted, “Demon! Come out!” But he just stood there… and then he even yawned. Time just kept passing. I started sweating all over. I thought, “Is this how it ends for me?” So how did it end? Did something finally happen? No. It ended exactly like that. The senior soldier said, “Alright, that’s enough. We don’t have time,” and walked off. My face burned with embarrassment. I was a new believer with no experience, and I didn’t know the Bible well yet, so I had no idea how to handle a moment like that.

But thankfully, the next morning someone came looking for me. He said, “What you did yesterday really moved me! I also go to church, and I believe what you said. But while I was singing loudly during worship last night, I suddenly thought, ‘What if my voice goes out?’ And this morning, when I woke up, my voice was completely gone!” He was speaking to me in a hoarse whisper—his voice was really gone. Then he asked me to cast out the demon for him. So that was my chance. But where in the army can you find a proper place to cast out a demon? So I took him to a quiet outdoor restroom. He was actually my senior. We went inside, closed the door, took off his glasses and hat, and I put my hand on his shoulder. Then I pointed my finger at his face and shouted, “Demon!” I shouted that several times. But suddenly the door burst open with a loud bang—“What are you two doing?” It was the inspection team. They thought they had caught a beating in progress. And just like that, both of us were taken away. But of course, I was the real problem in their eyes, because to them it looked like I was about to attack my senior.

So we were taken to the intelligence office, and in a very serious atmosphere I began writing a statement. While I was writing, I tried to explain, “This is a normal act of faith for Christians.” But since it was unfamiliar to them, they couldn’t understand it. So I opened the Bible and showed it to them. “Look! This book was written two thousand years ago, and what we did is exactly what is written here!” The officer didn’t believe it at all, but I kept explaining. Still, how could he understand what I was saying about the Bible? He said, “How does something from your religious book show up in your life? That doesn’t make any sense.” There was no convincing him. So I asked them to call the chaplain. The chaplain knew these things, but the problem was this: he already had a bias against our Sungrak Church and the Berea movement, and he often spoke negatively about casting out demons or speaking in tongues. But I had no choice, so I insisted, “Please call the chaplain.” When he came, the cross-examination began. Just as I had explained, the intelligence officer asked the chaplain, “Do Christians really cast out demons? This soldier says he casts out demons in Jesus’ name. He says what’s written in the Bible is actually happening. Is that true or not?” It was a very tense moment. The chaplain had always denied such things. But now an unbeliever was asking him, “Does the Bible really say this or not?” What could he say? It was an objective question. So he reluctantly answered, “Yes, it’s in the Bible.” Then the officer asked another question: “And does what the Bible says still happen today, or not?” The chaplain bowed his head for a while and then said, “Yes… it happens.” I was struck by how God was working in that moment. The very person who always spoke against me, saying such things were wrong, was now admitting that it’s written in the Bible and that it still happens today. I couldn’t help but think, “Wow, this is truly the work of God!” And just like that, we were released.

But we weren’t about to stop there. Honestly, I was ready to go back, but the senior soldier who had been taken in with me wasn’t. “No, let’s go somewhere safer and cast it out,” he insisted. Then he grabbed me and said, “Come with me,” and pulled me down to the underground boiler room. “Hurry, cast it out!” he said. So right there, I said, “In the name of Jesus, I command you—unclean demon, leave him!” I didn’t even have to keep going. The moment I said it, he shouted, “Ah!” and fell backward. That was the first time I ever cast out a demon—even in a boiler room of all places. After a moment he stood up again. I was so grateful to God that I said, “Let’s pray a prayer of thanksgiving.” But he thought I meant he should pray, so he immediately started praying his own thanksgiving prayer. Just moments earlier he had been whispering with a completely hoarse voice. But now he was praying clearly—his normal voice had completely returned. It was incredible to witness.

When the demon left, the symptoms that had been tormenting him disappeared—and that alone was astonishing. But what amazed me even more was this: everything that happened was written in the Bible. The same Bible I saw on a friend’s shelf when I was an unbeliever—the same Bible I later came to believe as the very word of God—contained the promises of Jesus Christ, and those very promises, written two thousand years ago, were now being fulfilled in me. It was truly remarkable. I was still a new believer, but I gained courage in my faith, and I began to pray earnestly that the words written in Scripture would be fulfilled in me. And God allowed me to experience many remarkable things. Looking back, I am truly grateful that soon after I began my life of faith, I was sent to the army. In that place, I had no one to rely on. I could not follow anyone around or depend on anyone’s influence. All I had was the Bible. So I decided, “If it is written in Scripture, then it must be fulfilled in me. If Jesus promised it, then it must happen in my life.” And I obeyed His word. When you do the same, your faith will grow as well.

Now, returning to the scene in Acts 8, the Ethiopian eunuch listened carefully as Philip explained the message. Philip preached the gospel to him—he told him about Jesus and His resurrection. The two of them were riding together in the chariot. As they traveled, the eunuch suddenly saw water in the distance and said, “Look, there is water! What would keep me from being baptized right now?” Philip answered, “There is nothing that would stop you. Jesus said that if you believe with your heart and are baptized, you will be saved. So you can be baptized now.” So they both got down from the chariot, and Philip baptized the eunuch in that water. It wasn’t a small bucket or a shallow puddle—it was enough water for a person’s whole body to go down into.

Originally, baptism means to be fully immersed in water. It is very similar to what happens when a person dies—when someone dies, the body is placed into the ground or covered over. In the same way, baptism is an act of confessing, “I am already a person who has died because of sin,” and then going completely under the water. When the person comes up from the water, God no longer regards that person as a sinner, but as one who has been completely cleansed—one whose sins have been washed away. Even more importantly, God acknowledges that this person has now been united with Jesus Christ, the One He loves most. This is why we are baptized in the name of Jesus.

Many churches today practice sprinkling instead of baptism by immersion. To be precise, it is called “aspersion,” where water is sprinkled on the head. This practice of sprinkling originated historically within the Catholic Church. But why did the Catholic Church begin doing it this way? Originally, Jesus commanded, “Be baptized—go down into the water and come back up.” Yet people gradually treated that command lightly and thought, “Do we really need to go through all that?” And over time, the full immersion Jesus commanded gave way to a simpler symbolic form by merely sprinkling water on a person’s head. When Jesus gave the command, He had a clear purpose for it. But because people did not hold on to His will, the original meaning of baptism was eventually replaced with this simplified ritual.

The more serious problem was this: in medieval Europe, people did receive baptism by sprinkling—but no one received it by choosing to believe in Jesus. Everyone was baptized as soon as they were born, without their own will. So when they grew up and became aware of themselves, they realized, “Wait… I’m already baptized? But I don’t even believe. I have no faith.” Then one day, some of them truly received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. And naturally they thought, “If that’s the case, I want to be baptized in the way Jesus originally commanded!” So many of them went to be baptized again. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t “again”—it was their first real baptism. But in the Middle Ages, this caused people to be punished for it. Many were even executed with the accusation: “You were already baptized! Why are you being baptized again?” It was a terrifying era. Yet despite the danger, countless people still chose to obey Jesus’ command. “I will be baptized just as Jesus commanded!” And they were baptized even at the cost of their lives. Some historical estimates suggest that, over nearly twelve centuries, as many as seventy million people were baptized in this way. That is how important baptism is.

So why is baptism so important? Why would anyone risk their life to receive it? Jesus said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” Some people might think, “Well, if I believe, isn’t that enough? Why do I need to be baptized too?” and find it bothersome. But in reality, this is a tremendous blessing for us. But when you say, “If believing is enough, why does Jesus say we must be baptized?—then how will you show that faith? Let’s say you say that—“I believe in my heart. God is almighty—He can see the faith inside me and save me,” then think about that for a moment. Yes, maybe there is faith in your heart—but is that all that is there? You probably have unbelief as well, right? You probably have doubts too. And when you decide to believe in Jesus, does your mind suddenly become clean? The moment you say, “I will believe in Jesus,” do all your thoughts instantly become holy? Of course not. Unclean thoughts are still there. The human heart is full of all kinds of impure things. Now imagine saying, “God, look into my heart and judge me by what You find there.” If God actually looked inside, there would be so many things that are not clean. Then, how would you handle that? And if God judged us based on what is inside us, then every one of us would have to go to hell.

Thankfully, God does not judge us by what is inside us. What He looks at is this: “What will I choose to pull out from within me?” It is by this choice He judges us. That is why we confess before the Lord like this: “God, even though there is doubt in me, even though there is anxiety in me, and even though there are many worries in me, I will not choose those things as mine. Among everything inside me, I choose to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died for me, and I choose to unite myself with Him!” Then how do we express that confession? The way to express it is baptism. If it is only spoken, anyone can later say, “When did I ever say that? No, that’s not what I meant!” Words can be changed at any time. But baptism expresses it through action—through your body. And once you do that, you cannot take it back. Heaven and earth become witnesses, the angels and everyone who is there become witnesses that “this person was baptized!” God acknowledges it as well. Even though our hearts may be full of unbelief, God does not judge us by those things. Instead, He has decided to look at the faith and the confession we express through baptism. It is something to be truly thankful for. That is why I am still grateful even now. Because inside me are many unclean thoughts. But I do not say, “Oh no, what is wrong with me? How can a pastor think like this?” The flesh is like that—it’s normal. I do not pay too much attention to it. That is just how the flesh behaves. But what I choose is not the flesh. I choose faith. And the first thing I chose and obeyed before God was baptism.

Likewise, baptism carries an amazing mystery. To someone who does not believe, it may look like nothing more than going into the water and coming back out. But in God’s eyes, the person has become completely different. It is like the world itself has been turned upside down. All of you probably have a passcode for something. Most passcodes are made up of four numbers. With those four numbers, you can either enter the door or be kept out of it. When the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 are just lying around, they mean nothing. They have no value at all. But those same four numbers can let me into my home—or keep me out. They can protect me from a thief—or leave me completely vulnerable. There is a mystery hidden in those numbers. To someone who doesn’t know the code, it means nothing. You could even write it on a wall, and to that person it would still look meaningless. But to me, those numbers hold a tremendous secret. Baptism is the same. To someone who doesn’t know, baptism looks like nothing but going into the water and coming back out. But this is what Jesus commanded.

“He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” This is what the Scripture declares. When a soul receives salvation, it no longer goes to hell nor faces eternal curse. And just as so many words written in the Bible were fulfilled in me, this promise—“He who believes and is baptized in the name of Jesus will be saved”—will surely be fulfilled as well. Jesus will come again to this earth, He will take us, and He will keep His promise to be with us forever where He is. But for that promise to be fulfilled, the very first step—the very first button—is to believe and be baptized. So if anyone here has not yet been baptized, I urge you to receive it. And if you have already been baptized, then know this: “I am now united with the Son of God. I have been grafted into the Son!” Therefore, you receive the treatment given to the Son. You receive His love. So if you have been baptized, instead of praying, “God, please forgive me,” pray this: “God, thank You for saving someone like me, for joining me to Jesus, for grafting me into Him.” Pray with thanksgiving. And when you give thanks, God will surely work.

God our Father, thank You that all the souls here have been united with Jesus Christ, Your beloved Son, so that they may receive the love that Your Son receives. And if anyone has not yet been baptized, please grant them faith so that they may be baptized in Jesus’ name and be united with Jesus Christ, and thus come to enjoy all the wonderful things You have prepared for Your Son—both throughout their lifetime and for eternity. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen!