Christ is Life Podcast

So over the last several weeks, as we've continued this message series, life in the Spirit, on the book of Acts, the huge emphasis, you know this, if you've been here, has been on evangelism. It's been on sharing the good news of Jesus, the good news of Jesus, with those who don't yet know him and and the reason for that, the reason the emphasis has been on that, is because that's where the text has led us. We're going, first and foremost, of course, to God's word to see the truth that's found there. And and even though evangelism has been a huge part of this entire book for eight chapters, it's really been the focus of chapter eight. And you may remember, if you were here a few weeks ago, that there was a great persecution that we were told that began to happen against the church in Jerusalem, and it caused the church to scatter, that the everyone in the church, except the apostles, were scattered. And the really great news that we saw in Acts chapter eight, early on, was that those who were scattered, God was with them, and God was at work in them and through them to share the gospel with those in the communities that they began to live in. And people's lives were being transformed and changed, and more and more people were added to the church. When we see that, it lets us know, because this is what we're doing this whole series for is what did life in the Spirit look like for the early church? What does it look like for us today? And if we see that happening in the early church, we can expect the spirit to be using us in the same way that evangelism and sharing your faith isn't just for the big upfront stage leaders. Wasn't just for the apostles in the early church, it was for all of the church, and it's for all of us as we make ourselves available to him. And so that's what we've been talking a lot about here on Sunday mornings. That was what we started to talk about on our Wednesday night class, how to share your faith in the parlor. There are about 30 of us who gathered there for that. It's not too late to join us. I'd love to have you come grow in this area together with us. But here's the deal, anytime we begin to really put our focus and talk about evangelism and sharing our faith with others, one of the things that almost always comes up is a question around this idea, Pastor, am I obligated to share the gospel with every single individual that I come across? I mean, what about strangers? Am I expected to share the gospel with strangers, people that I don't even really know? I mean, if I go on a trip, and I get onto an airplane and I obligated to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the person that I am sitting next to during that trip, what about the person that I encounter at the grocery store? What about the person that sits next to me whenever I'm riding the bus on the way to school? What about the person that I encounter at whatever restaurant I go to after church today, the waitress who serves us. Am I obligated to share the gospel with anyone and everyone today, as we continue this message series life in the Spirit, the way we see the Spirit working in and through the early church, the focus continuing to be on evangelism. Here in chapter eight, we're going to see the answer to that question, those types of questions, and so let's dive right in and see what Luke says. First. He says, Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, go south to the road, the desert road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. You can already see that this needs some context. We're jumping into the middle of a chapter. We're 25 verses in, and you may remember this if you were here, if you weren't here, or maybe even if you were, you don't necessarily remember but again, what we saw earlier, and we already kind of mentioned this, is that the church was scattered. And when the church was scattered, Philip, that we see right here, mentioned in verse 26 was one of those people. This is not Philip the the apostle. This is just one of the guys that was in the early church that has put his faith and trust in Jesus for salvation. And now he was scattered from his home. He was scattered from Jerusalem, and what we find out is that he ended up in a place called Samaria, and as he was learning to do life there, the Spirit began to be powerfully at work in and through him to share the good news with other people, and people were listening to what he had to say. And we're told that a number, I mean, hundreds, if not 1000s, of people were coming to know Jesus as the Holy Spirit. Was at work in and through Philip in this area. But now we're told that the Lord is moving him on, that he's moving him away from this area. He's calling him away from. Samaria. He tells him to go down to this area called Gaza. And it was kind of the last water stop in the south western part of Israel before entering the desert on your way into Egypt. It was about 100 miles or so from where he was in Samaria. And so this is no small trip. I mean, 100 miles for us today, no big deal. 100 miles for them would have taken three to four days, most likely for him to make this trip. So this is no small thing, and yet, Philip has no idea, no idea why God is calling him away from this yet, and what it is that he is even up to. Can you imagine feeling like the Lord is calling you away from the Tyler area, your home, and what it is that you're doing here and for a long particular trip. And he gives you no other details. You have no idea what it is that you're even going to do while you're there. Let's be honest, most of us would not go. We would just chalk it up to that's not really the Holy Spirit, because I don't have any other details right now. And so that's just ludicrous for me to go. I wonder what Philip does verse 27 so he started out. I mean, that's unbelievable when you just pause and think about that right there no other details, leave Samaria and just go, Well, what am I supposed to do when I get there?
Silence And yet he goes,
this is called trust. This is one of the things that we talk about when we're talking about life in the Spirit. Whenever we're talking about walking in dependence upon him. We're listening for his voice. We're looking for what he's saying to us. And when he leads out in some way, guys, sometimes he will lead us to do something in our lives that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to us. He may not give us very many details, if any details at all. But guys, we don't have to know them. We trust. Our role is to trust that He is the All Knowing and all wise God of the universe, that he knows what he's doing, he knows why he is doing it, and so we just trust. We trust and we obey. We trust and we obey. This is life in the Spirit. Sometimes he gives us more information. Sometimes he doesn't, he doesn't give Philip the information. Philip trusts and he obeys. And we're going to see what God was up to as we continue to work our way through the passage, verse 27 continues. So he started out, and on his way, he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandak, which means queen of the Ethiopians. 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. Now we're introduced to the Ethiopian eunuch that he tells us that he's going to going to meet, and he's an important official. He's in charge of, you know, the Treasury. And so he has an important role. He has money because he's making a really long trip. But even though this guy had an important role, even though it was something that he had acquired in this role, a lot of money and resources to be able to make a trip like this, eunuchs lived
a very difficult life.
Eunuchs, of course, were people, men who were castrated. They were castrated so that they wouldn't pose a threat to the queen that they were serving. And one of the things that we know about these situations is that sometimes these happen to boys. These happen to just young boys that were growing up who they knew were going to serve the queen in an official role one day. And so most likely, they didn't even have a choice in the matter. Sometimes this guy may not have even had a choice, and he had to experience this permanent thing that happened to him, this this traumatic thing that happened to him, this humiliating and shameful thing that happened to him as a man, and if it did happen to him as a boy, it would have certainly altered his continued physical development in a number of ways. It would put him in a situation where he was unable to marry, he was unable to have children, which meant a loss of legacy, a loss of a family name, and that was a huge deal in this day and age, in this culture, for sure, above and beyond that in the Jewish culture, this man's condition being a eunuch meant that, according to Deuteronomy, 23 he would be excluded from full participation in worship, and that is what we are told he was going to Jerusalem to do. This guy was seeking God. He was looking to get close to God. He was sitting on the outside looking in, having had all of these things happen to him, always feeling like he's at an arm's length. Can't get close to anyone, can't marry, can't have children, loss of legacy, loss of family name, maybe there's a God out there who loves me. I'll travel to Jerusalem. I'll offer sacrifices. I'll be a part of whatever religious duties and things that they tell me to do. And maybe that will help this God. If there is a God who created me, help me find some worth and some value along the way, and when he gets there, he
probably couldn't even enter the temple.
If he did, he probably
couldn't go past the court of Gentiles. And so now we're told that he's on his way back to Ethiopia, having traveled all of that way to experience that rejection, once again, having been turned away, once again, kept at an arm's distance, once again, never able to get close to God.
But he's still reading.
He's still seeking. He still has questions. He's still wondering what this whole thing is all about. Verse 29 says the Spirit told Philip go to that chariot, the one that the Ethiopian eunuch was riding in, and stay near it. And so this is the first time that Philip gets some instruction other than just go. Just go. You don't have any other instructions, just go. And so he's on his way to Gaza, traveling. No other instructions, no idea what to look for. Finally, the Spirit says, Hey, Philip, you you see that chariot over there? That that chariot? Yeah, that chariot right there. I want you to, want you to go up alongside of it. Well, what do you want me to do when I get there? Silence again.
Wonder what Philip does this time.
Then Philip ran to the chariot.
Don't you love that?
Or maybe, isn't that convicting?
No idea. Is that
really the Holy Spirit? I don't know what he meant to do with it. I don't know. Philip ran to the chariot when he heard the Spirit's voice. Heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. Do you understand what you are reading? And so he he's getting a sense. This is what the Holy Spirit brought me here for. This guy's reading scripture. He's reading Isaiah the prophet. Do you understand what you're reading. Philip asked verse 31 How can I he said, unless someone explains it to me. So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him in his chariot. This guy's still hungry. He's still seeking. He's traveled such a long way to seek God and to worship again, most likely being turned away. But he's still reading. He's still searching. And look at what we're told next about the passage that he was reading in Isaiah. This is crazy verse 32 this is the passage of scripture that he just happened to be reading. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter in a land before its shear 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? This is from Isaiah, chapter 53 it's a passage of scripture that describes the suffering servant. It's a messianic passage foretelling about the crucifixion of Jesus. As you can see, this language used over and over about Jesus being like a sheep led to the lamb. A lamb led to the slaughter. What's so incredible about this particular passage is that it was written 700 years before Jesus was ever born. It's written 700 years before Jesus ever went to the cross
was written, before crucifixion
was ever even invented. And yet, if you've never read Isaiah chapter 53 go back and read it this afternoon, and you'll see there's some incredible details in there that point to Jesus being crucified. And it happening one day, and he just happened to be traveling along and reading this particular passage out of all the passages that he could be reading coming back from Jerusalem in the temple. Now he didn't understand what he was reading, and so now we find that out in the response that comes after that verse 34 the eunuch asked Philip Tell me, please, who? Who is the prophet talking about himself or someone else? Then Philip began with that very passage of scripture and told him the good news of Jesus. Now, this is so great right here, because this is, this is where we see so much about sharing your faith, about evangelism, about. Sharing the gospel. What we see Philip do here is he began with that very passage of scripture, and he used scripture to tell him the good news about Jesus. When we're talking to people about our Christian faith, we are not talking about religious practices. We are not talking about behavior, and your need to stop doing certain things that you're doing and to start doing other things to become a good person. He crawled up in the chariot. He began to use the passage things that he was already searching for and talking about there, and starting with that passage of Scripture, which, again, was found back in the Old Testament. They didn't have the New Testament at this point, knowing that it all points to Jesus, this coming Messiah who was going to be sent one day to rescue the world. And he tells him the good news about Jesus, that this guy that you're reading about the land that was going to be led to the slaughter, has come. The Messiah has come. It was Jesus. This is what happened to him, and when he went to the cross, this is what he was doing. He was dying for your sins and my sins, the sins that separate us from God, your Creator, and having died and having been resurrected from the dead and defeating the power of sin and death forever, he offers that forgiveness and eternal life to you, if you'll just receive it as a gift. You don't have to end up going to the temple and do all the religious practices and all the sacrifices that would never end to get in with the God of the universe that created you. It's all through Jesus' finished work on the cross, and you can have it if you'll just accept His free gift of salvation. This is what he shares with them. This is what the Spirit will lead us to share with others. When we're sharing our faith, we point them to Jesus, that he's the way, that he's the truth, that he's the life, and that no man comes to the Father except through them. This guy, after hearing the good news of Jesus, responds to it verse 36 as they traveled along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, Look, here is water. Why? What can stand in the way of my being baptized? And so, so, as part of sharing the gospel, as part of sharing the good news of Jesus with him. He must have talked to him a little bit about baptism, that, hey, this free gift is offered to you if you'll put your faith and trust in Jesus for salvation. And then once we receive that, we get baptized on the other side of that to show that Jesus has washed all of your sins away, that the old Jew is dead, buried and gone, and that you've been raised up to someone that knew, and now you're identified as being part of the church. We become part of God's family. I'm a son of God. You become a son of God. We become brothers in Christ, and we're identified in this together in this way. Now, one of the things that we need to highlight here is that you may notice, especially if you're following along in your Bible or on a device with a Bible app on, it is after verse 36 ends. There's probably a 37 a number 37 but it's in brackets. It looks different than this verse, and most likely there's another number 38 right next to it. And you'll see that there's not any words between number 37 and number 38 depending upon what translation of the Bible that you are reading. If you're reading the King James, New King James, you probably see some words there in verse 37 The reason that that's not there in a lot of translations of the Bible is because in the earliest manuscripts that we have that were being copied along the way, there is no verse 37 there are. There's a verse 37 in older manuscripts. And generally we consider the manuscripts that are older and closer to the first day that they were written and the first time that they were written, there's less time that there could have been anything that happened in that time. Are the more reliable scriptures. And so most likely verse 37 was added.
Well, what does verse 37 say? Verse 37
was added later, and says, And Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, you may. So the Ethiopian said, Hey, why can't I be baptized? There's water right there. And so Philip says, Hey, if you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I do believe. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And so what most likely happened here is that there was a scribe who was copying this manuscript, and he gets to this verse, and he sees the Ethiopian eunuch who's responding in this way after hearing the gospel, and the next thing that we know, he's asking about being baptized. And so this Scribe is probably going, well, maybe people are going to get the idea that it's the baptism that saves them, right? Maybe because we don't see the next step, he doesn't explicitly say that he put his faith and trust in Jesus Christ. He just says, Can I be baptized? And we don't want people thinking that it's the baptism that actually saves people. We want people to understand it's Jesus. That saves them at baptism is a step that we take after that. He said, Well, it won't hurt anything that I just kind of add this part in here, because it's what happened in the Ethiopians life. It's kind of implied that that's what happened, and it didn't explicitly say it. And so he just kind of wrote that in there to make sure that we didn't miss that and see that. We don't know for sure, but that's most likely what it is that happens here. And so this is not in a lot of manuscripts and translations of the Bible that it but it is in some regardless, either way, we see what happens after the Ethiopian says, Hey, there's there's water. What prevents me from being baptized in this moment? Verse 38 says, And he gave orders. The Ethiopian eunuch gave orders to stop the chariot, and then both Philip and and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip
baptized him.
Guys that right there
is absolutely crazy
compared to the way that this passage started.
Remember what happened in the very beginning of
this Philip is told to leave Samaria and to go to Gaza, over 100 miles, a three to four day trip, and Philip doesn't even know why. All he knows is that, in one moment, he's telling hundreds, if not 1000s, of people about Jesus, and they're responding, and their lives are being transformed and changed. And the next moment, he's saying, leave all of this and what God is doing and go to Gaza. And he has no idea why. But now we see why. We see what God was up to, guys. God stops Philip in the middle of a revival breaking out where hundreds or 1000s of people's lives were being transformed and changed, and sends him 100 miles away to share the gospel with one man, one man, this is this is crazy. It makes no sense. I mean, why would God do that hundreds or 1000s of people's lives are being saved. Wouldn't it be more effective to keep Philip there and doing what he was doing, to keep this momentum and grow the church in all of this way? It seems ludicrous that this is what God would do. But the thing is, is that it's not crazy at all. When you remember what Jesus taught us about God that we see in Luke chapter 15, because in Luke 15, there's this parable that Jesus tells, and in that parable, Jesus tells us what God is like. And he says, Guys, do you know that God is like a shepherd? He's He's like a shepherd who would leave 99 sheep and go after one sheep
that's been lost and gone astray.
And that is exactly what we see God doing right now through Philip, he sends him away from the 99 and all the people that he was reaching in search of one lost sheep, and not just any lost sheep, but an Ethiopian eunuch, a Gentile, black eunuch, Who was wandering and walking through life, probably with all of this shame and living in isolation and living in confusion and trying to find some answers about stuff, one who had traveled far away from Ethiopia that would take him months to get to Jerusalem to try to find those answers, and Again, most likely was turned away when he got there,
cast away as one of the invisibles of society once again.
And yet we see right here
that he was not invisible to the
God of the universe, that
God saw him, and that he loved him so much that he stopped Philip in the middle of a revival to send him on a three day journey, to use Philip to tell him that there is a God, and He loves you so much that He sent His one and only Son to die on the cross for your sins. You do have value. You do have worth you mean so much to me that I would make him leave all of that in search of you to tell just you about Jesus so you could come into my family and share in this abundant life and have it for all of eternity.
He is the God who will. Leave the 99
in search of the one.
God sees you. He loves you,
and if you're lost, he will leave the 99 to come find you because He cares for you. You I see here he cares for the Ethiopian eunuch, and he gets baptized. After this, we see his response 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. I mean, I would be too right, and you would be, I mean, if you've gone this entire way, you've gone through all of these experiences of life and wondering all of these things, and walking through so much pain and heartache, and why is all this happening to me? And to see that God sent one guy to travel 100 miles just to talk to you, to share the gospel and invite you into the family, I would go away rejoicing. Then when we truly understand the gospel, all of us will go away rejoicing when we understand the great links, the chasm that existed between us and God before we said yes to Jesus and how he closed the
gap when we did,
there is something interesting that happens here that we need to draw our attention to. Says when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord just suddenly took Philip away. We don't really know when we say that if he was raptured, in some way, teleported, something happened, like it did in Star Trek, or if he just suddenly kind of slipped away without anybody noticing, we don't know for sure, but most likely, it was some kind of miracle. The Greek word that's used here is even translated Philip was just kind of carried away in some other translations. And so we get the idea that God did some kind of a miracle here, which we we shouldn't doubt, because how many other miracles we've already seen all the way through the book of Acts up to this point as well, regardless of whatever it is that happened, he finishes up in the last verse that we'll look at today and tells us where Philip ended up and what happened. It says, Philip, however, appeared at azotus and traveled about preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea. Philip was scattered to Samaria from Jerusalem. And what does he do there? The Spirit leads him to share the gospel, leave sharing the gospel from there and go to Gaza and share the gospel with them, with him, one guy who, no doubt, probably left and went back to Egypt. And who knows how many lives were transformed and changed from that one guy over there. And then he sends him away. And all along the way, he just keeps sharing the gospel with everyone who doesn't know Jesus. It's why, when we get to Acts chapter 21 a little bit later in this series, you're going to see Luke refer to him as Philip, the evangelist. He even gets a title because he can't stop sharing the good news about Jesus and how much he's transformed his life and to make sure people know that he can transform and change their lives as well. Sometimes when Philip would go to preach, it was to hundreds or 1000s,
and sometimes it was just to one.
He'll do the same thing in our lives today.
But for the specific question that we were looking at earlier today, what this means is that, yes, life in the Spirit means that He, the Holy Spirit, will lead us to share the gospel,
even with strangers,
Pastor, does that mean that I have to share the gospel with every single stranger that I encounter out in this world whenever I leave church? Not necessarily. I mean, look at what we saw happen today with Philip. He left Samaria, he travels over 100 miles to go to Gaza. Do you think he encountered anybody along the way on 100 mile trip? Probably saw tons of people along the way, and yet the Holy Spirit led him to share the gospel with how many people one guy? So apparently, the spirit's not going to lead us to share the gospel with every stranger that we ever encounter, but he will some. Philip was paying attention. He was listening. When he sensed the spirit laying something on his heart, he trusted it was from God, and He obeyed Him, and that's our role as well. We listen, we stay attentive. If the Spirit doesn't tell you to share the gospel with someone. Then you don't. If you sit down next to someone on an airplane and he does tell you to share the gospel with them, then you trust Him and you share the gospel with him. If you're sitting next to someone on the bus and he tells you to share the gospel with them, you share the gospel with them. If you're standing in the grocery line or you're sitting on a bench watching. Your kids play at the playground, and another mom sitting next to you, and the Holy Spirit says, tell her about me. You trust and you share with them about Jesus. And if he doesn't, you don't, and you leave the results up to him. This is life in the Spirit for those of us who have put our faith and trust in Jesus, but what about those of you who haven't how does that apply to you today? Well, I think the way this applies is just through a question, through what we've seen today, are you the one? If God is the God who will leave the 99 in search of the one who is lost,
is he seeking after and searching for you today, it
doesn't matter who you are, doesn't matter where you've been, it doesn't matter what you've done. The God of the universe loves you so much that He sent His one and only Son on a rescue mission for you who's lost, and if you'll just turn to Him and receive His free gift of salvation by putting your faith and trust in Him, you will be saved. Your sins will be forgiven. You'll receive eternal life.