Genuine Faith

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I came across this quote yesterday and it is so masterful in the way Dr. Steve Lawson says this and it just made me think about this message this morning.
“The gospel is more than an open invitation or free offer. It is an imperative command that demands our obedient faith in Jesus Christ.”
Dr. Steven Lawson
It is no coincidence I came across this quote that deals with Genuine Faith, I don’t believe in coincidences be in the Work of the Holy Spirit who is the One who moved me to this quote which is fitting in light of Acts 8:25-40 that provides us with the keys to Genuine Faith. We will see the keys in the Spirit’s movement, man’s willingness, scriptural clarity that culminates in identifying with Christ.
Acts 8:25 says this, “So when they had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem, and were preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.”
What seems to be a transition verse set up by Luke has more depth then I realized. Peter and John were sent to Samaria to witness what God was doing in Samaria. As it has gone the Israelites would avoid traveling through Samaria and it was not until Jesus came along that they would venture through. Now after Jesus' ascension and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit and being driven by the persecution of the church by Saul the gospel is spreading out toward the Samaritans. Philip proclaims the gospel message to them and then Peter and John come along and through prayer and the laying on of hands they receive the Holy Spirit. Now as they are there with Simon the Magician Luke tells us 'they had solemnly testified the word of the Lord.' The word here for testify is the word for warn, they were warning them and speaking the word of the Lord. What is the warning? The warning is involves what has already been said, the gospel has authority over the heart, it unifies the heart and exposes the heart. Simon was not looking at what the true good news was, he was stuck in the temporal and not focusing on the eternal. The warning points to the eternal by means of what is trusted in the temporal. The warning also entails what Paul tells us, "work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12-13). Philippians is not about becoming saved it is actually about sanctification. The same can be said of Peter and John testifying here to the Samaritans. The Samaritans are have been have recieved the gospel message but even within this group of Samaritans there is one who is not demonstrating a heart of repentance which is an absolute for salvation. Without repentance the one who hears the gospel doesn't change. Repentance is a changing of the mind a turning from what the world, satan and the flesh tells us is pleasing and satisfying to turning to what is truly pleasing and satisfying which is staying within the boundaries of what God commands. This is the true gospel message and as the apostles went back to Jerusalem they didn't just make a beeline for the city and keep to themselves, they went along preaching the gospel message, which entails the warning of what happens if it is not heeded, to many villages.

The Keys to Genuine Faith

Acts 8:25–40 NASB95
25 So, when they had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem, and were preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. 26 But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, “Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) 27 So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” 30 Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: He was led as a sheep to slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He does not open His mouth. 33In humiliation His judgment was taken away; Who will relate His generation? For His life is removed from the earth.” 34 The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. 36 As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 37 And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” 38 And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea.

Spirit's Motivation

Now Philip moved on to Samaria after the persecution began and while in Samaria he preached the gospel message and as people came to faith and word of the conversion made its way to Jerusalem, Peter and John made their way up to Samaria to see what was going on. Now that they have witnessed God working in the Samarians and seen how the gospel unites the Israelites and the Samaritans, Peter and John take up the cause of preaching the gospel to the Samaritans. So now that they are doing this God sends an angel to motivate Philip to go specifically to a road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza. He isn't told to go to a city but to a road. There are no coincidences when it comes to proclaiming the gospel message. We don't encounter people by chance, we never do. That takes away from God's providence if we believe in a coincidence. The Spirit moves us were we belong and as we walk with God and the stronger our walk the more we will be attuned to the Spirit's leading and guiding. Angels do not speak to us today verbally, and God doesn't speak to us audibly but as we seek Him through prayer and His Word we see more and more the direction He wants for us. This one thing is true, the people in our lives need to hear the true gospel and they need to hear it not just from our experience but we need to point them to what the Scripture says about sin, hell and Jesus Christ.

Man's Willingness

Philip doesn't ask questions when he is told to go. At least Luke doesn't record that for us but judging by Philip's track record thus far he is faithful and when he is asked to move he doesn't run from his responsibility but runs head long to what God calls for him. All he needed was to have the willingness to go, he didn't need to know the exact location or even what he was going to do, all he need was to have the willingness. What is funny is when it comes to determination and drive in godliness and gospel ministry the one character that supersedes all others is, willingness. We just need to be willing to go when asked and we need to be willing to trust in God and we need to willing to have confidence in God's control.
Philip was willing and as he arrived at the road he came across a man, an Ethiopian Eunuch, who was either a Jew from Ethiopia or an Ethiopian who was a proselyte. Regardless he was on his way back to Ethiopia from Jerusalem, where he had gone to worship. As he is on he way back home he finds himself reading the Scripture and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
Verse 29 truly brings out the main person in the entire book of Acts, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit moves us to do godliness and the Holy Spirit provides the courage we don't have to go up to someone and explain to them what the Bible says about Jesus. Philip once again only had to be willing. He had to be willing to be moved by the Holy Spirit. Now don't get me wrong all believers have the Holy Spirit and all believers can be motivated to share the gospel. Listen I know that everyone here knows that the gospel is important but when it comes to sharing it many times we chicken out. Is it the right time, or is it the right place or even do I know the right words to say. This is all chickening out. This is reluctance to giving the gospel. There is a dire need out there people need to be warned and we are reluctant to go out and give the gospel. We are being like Jonah when we don't give the gospel. Jonah who was called by God to go to Nineveh to give the message of salvation to them, he was told to go to this people and warn them that they would all die in 40 days if they didn't repent and turn to God and Jonah listened to God and he got on the first boat going in the opposite direction. He was reluctant and tried to hide from God but you can't hide from God and after three days in the belly of a great fish Jonah finally saw the error of his ways and he was willing to go to Nineveh. Philip is willing and it turns out he is not the only one who is willing, the eunuch is willing also.
He is willing to learn, he is willing to understand and he is willing to believe. He doesn't need to be persuaded he only needs to be guided. That is what God does through His Word. He guides people to faith through His word. In fact it is only His Word that has power to save. It is not anything else. Our testimonies may be a way to open a door, but our testimony can't save people, only God's Word can save people. Platitudes do not save people, God's word saves people. The gospel is always rooted in the word of God not in man. The question Philip brings up to the Eunuch is, "Do you understand what you are reading?" So here we have the eunuch willing to learn and know more and Philip willing to engage in conversation about Scripture.
The eunuch's response is willingness to learn and an understanding that he can't do it on his own. It demonstrates a reliance or trust not only in God's Word but also in God Himself. The Spirit of God moved in the eunuch to open him up to understand one thing, he can't understand the things of God with knowing God. God doesn't speak in riddles but God is Holy and we are not. God is righteous and we are not, God is light and we are not. So when it comes to His Word we need to rely on His Word being true and we need to rely on the Holy Spirit to enlighten us to what it has to say. The eunuch comes to an understanding of this so much sooner then most so called Christians. The Word of God is not just for the purpose of literature all though because God created language and God created literature you find there are literary generous in the Bible. It is not a history book either all though it does tell of the history of Israel and the World. It is the autobiography of God and His work in and through all of creation. His Word points to Him and the only way to know this and to see this is if you are reading the Word of God for the purpose of coming to know God and know how you are live in respect to His word. It is about knowing the Holy and the unholy can't come to the Holy, so we need to have understanding of how to come to the Holy. When we let go of looking at the Bible as a means of just acquiring knowledge and see it as a means to come into the presence of the infinite eternal creator of the universe that is when we actually learn and grow. We rely on God's Word which means we rely on God Himself.

Scriptural Clarity

First there s God's call, to the believer to go and spread the gospel and to the unbeliever to understand the gospel. Next is God's Word in faith which is the only power to transform heats and lives. Verse 23 begins with, "Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this;" Luke tells us what it was the eunuch was reading. It was Isaiah and the actual passage is Isaiah 53:7-8. This passage is the gospel. Isaiah 53 points perfectly and absolutely to Jesus Christ. It is so definitive and so precise that the Jews won't even read today. It is called the forbidden passage in the Hebrew canon. To think the text that the eunuch is reading was written about 738 b.c. which is about 800 years prior to the crucifixion and it points directly to the crucifixion. So now the eunuch reads this after he has just left Jerusalem in the wake of a great persecution on the church by Saul. So all of this has moved the eunuch to looking into this and prompted by the Spirit Himself he is prompted to turn to this portion of Isaiah. Now here is the thing they didn't have Bibles like we do. They also didn't have nifty little phones with their favorite Bible Apps on them. No what they had were scrolls. Now I am not sure how this man acquired his own scroll of Isaiah, or if all he had was the 53 chapter. Or if he had copied it himself from a scroll in a synagogue but what I do know is he had these two verses and these two verse were all that was needed for his heart to be stirred up. He relied on these verses and the truth that was in them. He saw the word of God as being valuable and he wanted to know about it more deeply. He wanted to know who this passage was about, the author, Isaiah or someone else. He was searching for Jesus Christ. This is the starting point for Philip to provide the gospel message. So Philip does by opening his mouth and he begins with this Scripture and he preached Jesus to the eunuch. This is faith in the gospel, knowing that you need to seek out Jesus in His Word. It is always good to listen to seasoned preachers explain the text but we need to be reading and studying the word of God on our own looking for a deeper walk with Jesus. Salvation begins with a call sanctification continues as we continue to remind ourselves of the One who was lead like a sheep to the slaughter silently going before his shearers without opening His mouth. Now the task is on those who have believed to tell people about who Jesus is and what He has done and why and we need to continually remind ourselves of what He has done for us lest we forget, which we will and become an arrogant Christian and not provide the gospel or even not see a reason for providing the gospel. It is our call and our duty, when we remind ourselves on a daily basis of what Jesus has done for us and remind ourselves of the fact that we don't deserve that is when we can see how important it is to tell others also about this truth. That is when we are moved by our faith to warn people of the wrath to come. It is always grounded in the Word of God. Just as Paul says, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ."
Romans 10:17 NASB95
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
That my friends is not just going up to people and telling them oh yeah you can believe what you want its ok or even thinking to yourself, it is also not by just telling them God is Love and God just wants to Love everyone. Yeah God loves the world and because He loves the World he sent His only Son to die for the world. It doesn't stop there, the verse continues and says that whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life. There is no life apart from faith and there is no faith apart from telling people from the Scripture and showing people the true Christ of Scripture. In order to believe in Christ you have to know who He is and you can't just worship Him or God your own way. That makes you God. That is a proud attitude and that is not what Scripture dictates. Oh I can love people whatever way I want. No you can't there is one example of love in Scripture and that is selfless love.
The only one who has ever truly demonstrated this selfless love is Jesus. And I can tell you this the love mankind demonstrates and wants demonstrated toward them is all selfish. This is what the world believes love is, what is in it for me. If I love you this way then I deserve for you to love me back in the same way or better. If I don't get that love then I will stop loving you. That isn't love. That is selfishness and it is conditional.
John 3:16 NASB95
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
"God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that who ever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." God didn't wait for us to love Him, in fact as Jesus died on the cross He was mocked, humiliated and rejected. All the opposite of being loved. I am so grateful that God's love isn't conditional because if God's love was conditional and if He loved us the way we as sinful human beings love one another then Jesus would have come down off the cross and said forget it if your not going to love me then I am not going to love you. No, that isn't biblical love that is not what God's word teaches about the good news of Jesus Christ. It was love that held Him to the cross, true, unblemished, unadulterated, perfect, absolute, holy, righteous, Love. You can't tell people about this love if you don't point them to the Scripture.
Look at what Ephesians ways about true sacrificial Love. Ephesians 5:25-27.
Ephesians 5:25–27 NASB95
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
You can't know this Love if you don't know the Scripture and this is a Love that we should be shouting from the roof tops. A Love that is True and Righteous and when we are in His Word seeking His face and truly looking to see His character we see this. Without His Word all we have to go by is someone else's opinion. Learn the gospel message for yourselves. Look at John 3:16, learn what Love is, and let your life be marked by the character of love, which is selfless and warns people about hell because that is what all mankind deserves and don't worry about what they think of you.

Identifying with Christ

Philip is moved by God's call and then he is moved by God's Word the same goes for the eunuch. He is moved by God's call and then moved by God's Word now we can't lose sight of who was at work in all of this and how He worked it to the end. God is at work and His work is through the power of the Holy Spirit. There are no details of how the baptism of Simon came about, was Simon asked or did he initiate the rite which is symbolic of our being buried with Christ and then raised to new life. Here it is the eunuch who asks to be baptised, this in and of itself is a show of trust. The gospel moved the eunuch so much that he wanted to identify with Jesus Christ. That is what true faith does it moves us to want to identify with Him. This is an immediate response which is motivated by a deep desire of a changed heart for Christ. Faith moves us to want to take on this identification not that the identification changes us but because we have been changed. We have become as Corinthians tells us, "a new creature in Christ."
2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB95
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
Now that we are new creatures in Christ we are moved to take on the symbol of being a new creature. The baptism doesn't save the eunuch but what it does do is in symbolic form he will go down in the water as the eunuch, dead in his sins, and when he comes up out of the water his sins are washed away and he comes up with new life.
Verse 37 in not in the earlier manuscripts. It seems as though a later scribe added this verse to give a little more clarity to the fact that the eunuch truly identified with Christ and confessed Christ by name. This is true of true conversion, we must believe with all our hearts that Jesus is Lord and that He is the Son of God. This is not inaccurate and there is nothing wrong with what is written, it just seems as though it was added in later times.
Verse 37 doesn't hurt the integrity of the passage or o the event, the eunuch asked what prevents him from being baptized and nothing prevented him from being baptized because we find in verse 38 they come down out of the chariot and go into the water and are baptized. The eunuch who is disfigured and has been blemished and is not allowed to enter the temple is now been reborn and brought into the household of God. Being brought into the church and now he is a part of the church which will be presented to God without spot or blemish. Once again the irony of how God works to accomplish His goals and what a demonstration of Grace and Mercy. This is so cool. God never ceases to amaze me.
Ephesians 3:14–19 NASB95
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Then the One who has been doing all of this moves once again. No not Philip but the Spirit who has been the active player in this whole event. He has moved Philip from Samaria to this desert road, He is the one that provided Philip's willing heart to go to the middle of nowhere and give the gospel. The Spirit also provided the eunuch with a willing heart to dig into the word of God and the Spirit opened the eunuch's mind to want to understand the Scripture and opened His mind to understand it when it was rightly explained. The Spirit moved Philip to be able to explain the Scripture the eunuch was reading. The Spirit was the One who opened the eunuch's eyes to trust and rely on Jesus. The Spirit moved the eunuch to want to identify with Jesus in baptism and now the Spirit moves Philip away from there, with the idea here of a supernatural disappearance. The eunuch saw him no more. Then the Spirit moves in the eunuch to rejoice as he went on his way. He went back home to Ethiopia and as tradition has it or as legend has it, was the first missionary to Ethiopia but this isn't proven.
Never the less, the urgency of the gospel is very high and the Spirit was at work and still is at work in spreading the gospel. Jesus said in Acts 1:8 go into all the world, Jerusalem, Samaria and Judea and to the uttermost parts of the earth and spread the gospel. From the persecution brought about by Saul we find that the spread of the gospel goes to Samaria Judea and the remotest parts of the earth.
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