Walking as Philip Walked
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Introduction
Introduction
Last week we were introduced to another man, a brother in Christ who was full of the Spirit
The week before we saw Stephen, a man who lived beholding the glory of the Lord and who died beholding the glory of the Lord.
What an awesome thing to be able to say about someone. The more I thought about Stephen after the message a couple of weeks ago, the more the Lord spoke to my heart about this reality.
Stephen lived and died beholding the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ.
I want that said about me.
Do you want that said about you? I hope so
And brothers and sisters, if we live beholding the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ what will happen?
Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Last week Landon introduced us to another faithful brother, a man who had been recognized by the church as having been filled with the Spirit, a godly man, Philip.
We are going to talk more about Philip here in just a minute but before we do let’s step back and be reminded of what this text teaches us about God.
We are reminded that God is a missionary God and that the gospel was to go to the end of the earth.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Philip took the gospel to Samaria and the Lord opened hearts to hear and to receive.
Samaritans are being saved here in but it is not only Samaritans but also Ethiopians.
Here we see God’s saving work among the nations, we see God’s kindness to this eunuch.
God gave him the scriptures and then God provided a teacher to open up the scriptures to him. We see the wonderful work of God’s providence in bringing this man to salvation, ultimately God’s kindness is what leads this man to salvation.
We cannot miss the Spirit’s work in this passage and we will talk about this more, but clearly the Spirit is at work to send the gospel to the nations.
Greeks and Romans considered Ethiopia “the end of the earth” and in a sense there is no doubt that this was a foretaste of the reality that the gospel will go to the ends of the earth as God has proclaimed.
One more thing that I will point out before we consider Philip in more detail, I also believe that we should see this passage, this event a fulfillment of a passage in Isaiah
In the prophet is speaking of God’s salvation going to the nations and listen to v.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.”
Brothers and sisters, when God’s heart is our heart then we will have a missionary heart, we will have a desire for the gospel to go forth in our community, in our county, in our state, in our country, in our continent, and to the nations.
And Philip is a picture of that type of person.
As was seen last week Philip went to Samaria and he proclaimed to them....what?
Christ, he proclaimed Christ, His life, His death, His resurrection, His Second Coming, His Kingdom
He proclaimed Christ
We are also told that as the Holy Spirit worked through Philip as He proclaimed Christ the result was that there was much joy in that city.
A city once blinded by darkness, by Simon the magician, has now had their eyes opened to see the glory and the beauty of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit as Christ is proclaimed to them.
Then we have a break in the story about Philip to tell us about Simon the magician but then we come back to Philip and that is where we will pick up today.
Then we have a break in the story about Philip to tell us about Simon the magician but then we come back to Philip and that is where we will pick up today.
Philip was a man saved by the grace of God just like us, but Philip is an example to us of how we are to walk
Philip, this disciple of Jesus Christ, this man filled with the Spirit.
I. Walking by the Spirit
I. Walking by the Spirit
We were told in 6:3 that Philip was full of the Spirit
The church recognized him as a man who was full of the Spirit and so that simply means that the church saw the fruit of the Spirit in this mans life
Things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, goodness, gentleness, self control.
Being full of the Spirit, Philip also walked by the Spirit, he was led by the Spirit.
According to the scriptures he was sensitive to the guiding of the Spirit in his life
We see Philip going down to Samaria, it seems that Philip was directed by the Holy Spirit through persecution. In other words Philip understood that being forced out of Jerusalem was under the Lord’s Sovereign control and that clearly the Lord was putting him in Samaria for a wider ministry.
Brothers and sisters, let us remember that often through difficulties in our own lives the Lord leads us to places where we can minister to others.
Philip could have had a pity party about being ran out of Jerusalem, but instead he saw this as an opportunity to minister in Samaria.
In the passage before us today we see that Philip was led by an angel to go south of Jerusalem.
Maybe you want to object and say here, well if God would send an angel and tell me what to do then I would do it, then I would be able to walk in obedience.
But brothers and sisters, the Lord has sufficiently told us in His Word what we are to be about.
We do not have a lack of counsel concerning the will of the Lord.
Walking by the Spirit means that one is by the power of the Holy Spirit walking in obedience to the commands that the Lord has given us in His Word.
There is nothing that keeps us back from being able to walk in obedience much like Philip except our own laziness, our own dullness, our own coldness in prayer and in spiritual matters.
Let me ask you, are you walking by the Spirit, are you seeking by the power of the Holy Spirit to walk in the clear commands that the Lord has given you?
Think about Philip’s situation, things are going great in Samaria, Simon has been dealt with and the church is full of joy. Why leave now? There could have been 100 excuses as to why he should not leave, but when he heard and understood the command of the Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit he obeyed.
Not only is he leaving but he is going down to a desert place v.26
You know often we come with excuses as why the clear commands of the Lord are not really the best thing for us to obey at this time.
Brothers and sisters there are times when the clear commands of the Lord are hard and maybe don’t even make sense to us but we are called to obey.
And notice the Lord will always bless obedience to His Word.
Philip is given a clear command and he obeys though it did not make sense to him at the time and the Lord blessed his obedience.
Brothers and sisters the Lord blesses the obedience of His children.
The last thing under this point that I will say is that we see the Philip obeyed the subjective inner voice of the Holy Spirit
I hesitate to even say that because that can be so misunderstood and wrongly applied so let me clarify what I am saying
Sometimes in providence the Lord leads us to places and as we walk by the Spirit we see those as opportunities to minister to others
There are clear commands that Lord gives, today in His Word, and when we are walking by the Spirit we will obey
And there are times when according the principles of God’s Word the Holy Spirit of the Lord moves us to action.
Example, we know that it is the Lord’s will for us to share the gospel and there may be a time when you are really impressed by the Holy Spirit to share the gospel with a certain individual.
Philip was the man who was sensitive to the movement of the Holy Spirit in his life
(give warnings about what this does not mean)
So three things, this man walking by the Spirit
Sees the Lord’s providence in his life as an opportunity for ministry
Walks in obedience to the clear commands of the Lord
Is sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit in his life.
II. Walking in the Word
II. Walking in the Word
Notice as the Lord calls Philip out to the desert and he encounters the Eunuch what happens.
Clearly this eunuch is a God-fearer and he had come to Jerusalem to worship the Lord and in the Lord’s providence He puts Philip in the path of this eunuch.
The eunuch has a copy of the Scriptures and he is reading in
And the eunuch asks Philip a question of the text
And what happens?
Philip is able to share the gospel with him from the Scripture
Listen to what the text says, “and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus”
Now granted there is probably no better place from the OT to preach the gospel than
But what we see is a man that is so familiar with the Scriptures that he is able to take the OT and speak of the promises of God’s redemption and restoration
God’s promise to do this through the seed of Abraham
God’s promise that this Son of Abraham would be a Son of David who would be a priestly King
A King who die to rescue His people from their sin
Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
A King who would be crushed but who would also be raised from the dead
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Is. 53.
Philip was able from their to point to Christ and to say to the eunuch and say to him, Christ is the fulfillment of all of these things.
In Christ God is reconciling sinners to Himself, in Christ God is forgiving sinners of their sin and bringing them back into a right relationship with Him.
And Philip knows enough to know that this salvation is for any who will come to Him, Ethiopian or not, eunuch or not, rich or poor, man or woman; that Christ did not come to save just a specific group of people from humanity, people from a certain culture or people or people from a certain class
Christ came to save sinners. Sinners
Brothers and sisters are we walking in the Word so that we are able to share Christ from the Word?
We are to walk in the Word
III. Walking with others
III. Walking with others
From all that we see with Philip he is a man who is willing to walk with others so that he can share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them.
He gets to know people in Samaria and share the gospel with them
He is willing to walk and to talk with the eunuch so that he can share the gospel with him.
He is willing to go to Azotus and preach the gospel to all the towns.
Brothers and sisters in order to share the gospel we must be willing to walk with others.
Reportedly a man stood up in one of D.L. Moody’s meetings and said, I have been for five years on the Mount of Transfiguration. How many souls have you won to Christ? was the sharp question that came from Moody in an instant. “Well, I don not know”
“Have you won any?” persisted Moody
“I do not know that I have answer the man”
Moody went on to say
“Well, sit down then. When a man gets so high that he cannot reach down and save others there is something wrong.”
Brothers and sisters we are to walk by the Spirit, we are to walk in the Word
But we are also to walk with others so that we can share the gospel
Philip must have had a love for people, for Samaritans and Jews, for Gentiles, for people like him and for people not like him
Philip was a man who loved for others, who cared for others, who cared enough to get to know them, to walk with them so that he could speak the truth of the gospel into their lives
Application
Application
1. We are called to walk by the Spirit
prayer, seeking the Lord, praying for His power, walking in obedience to the clear commands the Lord has given, not grieving the Spirit by walking in unrepentant, unconfessed, habitual sin
We are called to walk by the Spirit
2. We are called to walk in the Word
We are to seek to grow in our knowledge of the Scriptures
You are a theologian, a good one or a bad one
3. We are called to walk with others
We are to be intentional to build relationships to share the gospel
But there may be those promptings of the Holy Spirit, know you don’t need that to share the gospel but you should especially share the gospel in those times
We need to be prepared to share the good news
We need to learn to ask good questions
Let us pray that the Lord will use us to share the gospel with those that He is working in their hearts
As we follow the leading of the Spirit let us expect to see the Lord at work.