The Book of Acts is a historical account of the early days of the church, showing the impact that the resurrection of Jesus had on the world. Today, as we study the ongoing ministry of one of the original deacons of the church, we will better understand the heart of God, identify examples of things that need to be clarified by the church in today's culture and, finally, what the results of meeting Jesus should be.
Acts 8:26-36, 38-40 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
Background: The gospel was spread through all believers, not just the apostles.
It was because of the powerful reality of the resurrection that all believers, not just the "religious professionals," were involved in sharing the good news of Jesus with their communities.
Philip was a deacon (Acts 6:1-7) of unknown profession who was scattered along with the rest of the church as a result of the persecution that resulted from his fellow deacon Stephen's martyrdom (Acts 7).
The Heart of God
1) God loves and brings in the outcast.
Eunuchs in ancient cultures were common but by Old Testament law were not allowed to enter the assembly to worship (Deuteronomy 23:1).
We are tempted to think that there are too many cultural misconceptions regarding Christianity and intellectual barriers to overcome for people to consider Christ. Some think that people will not listen.
Truth: The eunuch had all of these cultural (Ethiopian) and personal (eunuchs were not allowed to worship in the temple) issues to overcome, yet was willing to have the way of God explained to him.
It became good news when he saw that a Jew who was a leader (deacon) in the church came to him and let him know that the good news of Jesus was for him as well.
Isaiah 56:3-8 Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For thus says the Lord: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”
The gospel is for everyone. There is no sin too big, no lifestyle too vile, no heart too hard that Jesus can not cleanse. His forgiveness is free, purchased on a tree.
2) God loves and brings in the powerful.
The eunuch would have been an educated man of means taking a trip in a chariot (usually reserved for the wealthy) that would have taken 48-60 days one way, 96-120 days round trip.
It would have been a sacrifice, (who was watching Candace's money?), expensive and evidence of the eunuch's deep desire to go to great lengths to understand and see the glory of God. With our understanding, we should have an even greater attitude of devotion today.
The gospel does not just bridge the gap for the Jew and the Gentile, but also for the rich, the middle class and the poor, the educated and the uneducated. All need to meet Jesus at the cross in repentance and faith. God shows all men their sin and brings the powerful to their knees to set them free.
“The greatness of the man's power is the measure of his surrender.”
― William Booth
3) God loves and brings in all the nations.
Whereas Philip's ministry in Samaria would have been to those who were known as "half-breeds" (those of Jewish and Gentile mixed heritage) at the time, this is the first biblical account that we have of the church going to the ends of the earth with the gospel as Ethiopia was considered in Mediterranean legends and mythical geography as the end of the earth. This was the first purely Gentile missionary endeavor recorded outside of Judea.
Points of Clarification for Our Culture
1) Where you were born determines what you believe.
Truth: Though this may be the starting place for shaping your worldview, it does not mean it is where you have to end.
2) God moves in some places but not in others.
Your confidence from your previous revival can fuel your obedience in the desert place.
You may feel like there doesn't seem to be much spiritual activity going on where you are. It doesn't feel like where you came from. You don't know what God will do here.
Like Philip, God can send you from a place of revival to a seemingly dry place to birth something new. You don't have to hit the streets. It's the people who are around you everyday in the workplace, neighborhoods and schools that Jesus wants to reach with the gospel.
In Samaria, Philip saw the onset of a revival as he preached the gospel in power and saw many people come to Jesus. It was his encounter with God there that gave him faith for God to move in a dry place. Let it be the same for you today.
3) It will be hard for people to believe.
Truth: Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.
Romans 10:14-17 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
We have had atheists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and people from various lifestyle backgrounds come to Jesus. God is ready to do more!
Biblical Results of Meeting Jesus
1) You must have a hunger for and desire to obey God's word.
We must know the Word to obey it.
John 14:21-23 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Judas not Iscariot said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
As Jesus and the apostles continually affirmed, cited and referred to the Bible as the only authoritative, Holy Spirit-inspired source through which we can measure knowledge of God accurately, see the problem of humanity clearly, God's solution of salvation purely and His purposes for His people unwaveringly, it is our only manner through which we can hear God's unadulterated thoughts regarding life, family, priorities, culture, sexuality, money, career, entertainment, relationships and the imminent culmination of history pinnacling with the return of Jesus Christ.
"Researchers George Gallup and Jim Castelli put the problem squarely: "Americans revere the Bible--but, by and large, they don't read it. And because they don't read it, they have become a nation of biblical illiterates." How bad is it? Researchers tell us that it's worse than most could imagine.
Fewer than half of all adults can name the four gospels. Many Christians cannot identify more than two or three of the disciples. According to data from the Barna Research Group, 60 percent of Americans can't name even five of the Ten Commandments. "No wonder people break the Ten Commandments all the time. They don't know what they are," said George Barna, president of the firm. The bottom line? "Increasingly, America is biblically illiterate." [see Barna Group's web site]
Multiple surveys reveal the problem in stark terms. According to 82 percent of Americans, "God helps those who help themselves," is a Bible verse. Those identified as born-again Christians did better--by one percent. A majority of adults think the Bible teaches that the most important purpose in life is taking care of one's family.
Some of the statistics are enough to perplex even those aware of the problem. A Barna poll indicated that at least 12 percent of adults believe that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife. Another survey of graduating high school seniors revealed that over 50 percent thought that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife. A considerable number of respondents to one poll indicated that the Sermon on the Mount was preached by Billy Graham. We are in big trouble."
http://www.christianity.com/1270946/
2) There is only one way of salvation and Jesus is the only way to it.
In Scripture, we see that there is only one God to be worshiped, found in the three persons of the Father, testified to through the centuries by the Holy Spirit, ultimately pointing to Jesus and His cross as the only way to be made right with Him (Acts 4:12). This is what Isaiah pointed to, Philip explained and the eunuch received.
3) Repentance from sin is a non-negotiable. Water baptism is the mandated response. You can not continue to live in an unrepentant lifestyle and still have God's blessing.
“Religion used to be the opium of the people. To those suffering humiliation, pain, illness, and serfdom, religion promised the reward of an after life. But now, we are witnessing a transformation, a true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our murders, we are not going to be judged.”
― Czesław Miłosz
It is the very reason you were baptized into the death of Christ or need to be now like the Ethiopian eunuch.
4) Being a consistent and active part of the local church is an imperative, not an option. Without this commitment, you become a part of the body detached from the head reminiscent of Oscar Wilde's cynic:
"A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."
-Oscar Wilde
People want to be a part of something great, but don't want to work to make something great.
We need a revived theology of what it means to be an functioning part of the body and not just an attendee in this generation. Remember, non-functioning parts of a body often end up diseased and destined for amputation.
“An introverted church, pre-occupied with its own survival, has virtually forfeited the right to be a church, for it is denying a major part of its own being. As a planet which ceases to be in orbit is no longer a planet, so a church which ceases to be in mission is no longer a church.”
– John R. Stott
Mothers (and fathers), raise your children with the clarity that comes from the Word of God:
The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy in two of his canonized letters. Timothy's father was a Greek, possibly an unbeliever, but Lois and Eunice, Jews waiting for the Messiah, taught Timothy, the future apostle, the truth.
2 Timothy 1:5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.
The context of Jesus saying that He would be with us always was not when we were simply sitting in a pew, but as we were out in the world, on mission with Him, proclaiming His Word, loving and serving the needs of the people. Jesus' time is spent not only interceding for His people, but co-laboring with them to build His Kingdom of disciples. Let's go into our city and bring the clarity of the gospel to see people like the Ethiopian eunuch come to the saving knowledge of Christ.
Second City Church- Chicago Fire 2015 Sermon Series
