Spirit Ensured Movement
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Postman’s Confidence
Postman’s Confidence
I thought of a story that appeared in the Sunday School Times sometime ago as I considered our text this morning.
A postman was explaining to someone what a sense of security he felt in his work of delivering the mail. “Why,” he said, “all the resources of the Government are pledged to support me in carrying on my work. If I have only one small postcard in my bag, no man dares to come against me in its delivery. All the Federal police powers of the United States would be thrown into action if necessary to secure the safe delivery of that post card.”
If the fulfillment of God’s great Commission rests fully on my shoulders to complete; God’s kingdom is in trouble. I lack the power and resources to complete the task. If the effectiveness of the message depends on me, then when I am attacked and killed for it, it dies with me. But if like the Post man who comes in the name of the power and authority of the United States government , I come in the name of the power and authority of Jesus Christ, who can withstand the joyful advancement of the kingdom of God? Jesus promises everyone of His disciples, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go … and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end” (Matt. 28:18–20).
Where does the power come from to fulfill the Great Commission? Where does it’s success derive? it does not come from you and I and our self-determination and wit. It would be a mistake to think that we are in charge of God’s kingdom. Jesus says, “Know, that I am always with you. My power, and my authority in heaven and earth is with you and working for your good and my glory.”
Philip’s interaction with the Ethiopian Eunuch is proof that God is the one who advances His kingdom to all peoples and its success rests on His shoulders. It is God’s initiative to use you and I to work out his plan to gather His elect to the ends of the earth, and He wants you and I to have confidence that He will succeed in fulfilling His mission.
God ensures his kingdom will advance to all peoples by preparing the way for His gospel, providing understanding of His gospel, and removing all barriers for a commitment to His gospel.
God prepares the way for you to testify of His gospel to all people (Acts 8:26-29).
God prepares the way for you to testify of His gospel to all people (Acts 8:26-29).
As we already know, Philip was installed with Stephen as a deacon in Acts 6:3. He was “full of the Holy Spirit.” This means that he was ruled by the Spirit and his life marked the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). His heart was submissive to the Spirit’s leading so that he was open to go wherever the Spirit leads, even if it is to a people or a place he wouldn’t ordinarily go like Samaria.
Acts 8:26 begins with God directing Philip to go toward the Ethiopian Eunuch. Philip did not know the Eunuch. He was a stranger, a foreigner, a person who did not look like him or was even close to the same social network.
The Eunuch was a man who was from the Old Testament land of Cush which is now the Sudan. He was a tall black man who may have been castrated. Eunuch’s were known to be very loyal to their master’s, so much so, that they were eventually put in charge of treasuries. The Ethiopian Eunuch was the minister finance for the Queen Mother of Ethiopia. So, the term eunuch became synonymous with loyal subjects who were ministers of finance and such. So it could be that he was not castrated, but, that being said, it is very likely he was.
It also says that the Eunuch was a worshiper of God. The wording is such that he was God-fearing, but not a full convert to Judaism. Furthermore, if he was a true Eunuch, he could never truly be a apart of the congregation of God’s people because his physical castration was a blemish that was not acceptable in the Lord’s assembly (Deuteronomy 23:1). He could visit the city and see the temple, but he could never enter it. He was forced to worship God from a distance. And yet, God has other plans for this man. He is preparing His heart to hear the good news.
God Prepared him with His Word.
God Prepared him with His Word.
and was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading the prophet Isaiah aloud. The Spirit told Philip, “Go and join that chariot.”
The Eunuch was wealthy enough to have his own copy of Isaiah. Is there a better Old Testament prophet to have in your hands than the good news of Isaiah? The prophet Isaiah is the backdrop to the gospels. It is one the most referenced Old Testament books in the gospels. Why? Because Isaiah spoke of the perfect future that God has planned for his people. He speaks of a Suffering Servant Messiah King who will one day come and redeem God’s people and His creation. And just so happens, the Eunuch is reading
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, He did not open His mouth. He was taken away because of oppression and judgment; and who considered His fate? For He was cut off from the land of the living; He was struck because of my people’s rebellion.
The Eunuch had just finished worshiping in Jerusalem. His soul had to be aroused from the experience. He’s traveling in a wagon like chariot that holds up to three people most likely. He has a driver. He could spend time staring off into space. Looking at his Facebook feed. Downloading articles of of Fox News or Yahoo. Not a chance. He’s so moved by God that he opens the scroll and begins reading out loud the prophet Isaiah. It was customary to read it out loud in antiquity. It’s how thy digested he material so they could memorize it. He wanted the prophets words in his heart. Why? What was going in hin his heart that wanted to be close to God?
God Prepared Him by Drawing Him.
God Prepared Him by Drawing Him.
There is something that you need to know about your natural fallen self. You do not want to seek God.
There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.
Paul also reminds us that
But the unbeliever does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.
Without the Spirit of God regenerating our heart, that is, awakening Spiritual life in us, we cannot understand the things of God: His truth, our sin, His redemption. So what is happening to the Eunuch?
The Father is awaking the Eunuch to his life by using His word to draw the Eunuch to His Son. Remember what Jesus said.
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.
He said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted to him by the Father.”
God always initiates salvation and prepares the way of salvation. Salvation is first and foremost God’s work. That is why
For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— not from works, so that no one can boast.
God prepares the way for you to testify of His gospel by awakening the heart to life in order to hear the good news. Church, God gives us great confidence in sharing the gospel because His prepares the heart to hear the good news and respond.
God provides understanding of His Word for you to testify of His gospel (Acts 8:30-35).
God provides understanding of His Word for you to testify of His gospel (Acts 8:30-35).
When Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” “How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the Scripture passage he was reading was this: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before its shearer, so He does not open His mouth. In His humiliation justice was denied Him. Who will describe His generation? For His life is taken from the earth. The eunuch replied to Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet saying this about—himself or another person?” So Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning from that Scripture.
Later on in the books of Acts, Paul has an encounter with a women named Lydia. She was a worshiper of God like the Eunuch and Cornelius. Like the Eunuch and Cornelius, she had not become a full convert to Judaism. Something had to change for her to get with the program.
A woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God, was listening. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was spoken by Paul.
God Provides You To testify
God Provides You To testify
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
The Spirit has come upon Philip. He is empowered to testify of Jesus’s salvation work in Samaria. Philip obeys the Spirit’s leading, and runs to the Eunuch. Don’t miss Philip’s commitment to Jesus. He did not putz around. He didn’t wonder of the Eunuch would be offended. He ran to Him. If all of God’s people would run to the lost like Philip, how soon would the Great Commission be fulfilled and Jesus would reign as King? The prophet Isaiah says,
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the herald, who proclaims peace, who brings news of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
God’s Sovereign Instrument of Grace
God provides understanding of His word for you to testify of His gospel. He uses you as an instrument of grace to bring the message, but he does not depend on you to make sure it is understood. God gives life to the heart so it can hear the truth. God opens the mind so that it can understand the truth. He chooses to use you and me to bring the truth, to preach it.
But how can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher?
God provides you, Christian, to bring the good news of peace with God.
God Provides Understanding
God Provides Understanding
God had prepared her heart to hear the gospel. He sent Paul to preach the gospel. And then as Paul was preaching, God opened her heart to understand the gospel. The same thing is happening with the Eunuch.
The first thing he asked him was, “Do you understand what you are reading? The Eunuch essentially says, “No. I need help.”
God had sovereignly readied the Eunuch’s heart with 53:7-8 before the eyes of his heart. He was reading about the Messiah’s suffering, humiliation, and exaltation. The slaughtered lamb leads the heart to the crucifixion of Jesus as he was silent before his accusers. He was given no justice at the hands of Pilate and was blasphemed by his own people.
There was some confusion among Jews about who the prophet was talking about. That is why the Eunuch asks, “Is he talking about himself or another person.” Its at that point Philip opens the scriptures, starting in Isaiah 53 and telling him about Jesus and his needs for forgiveness.
What does Philip tell the Eunuch?
Repent and believe!
Jesus told his disciples,
He also said to them, “This is what is written: The Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
The bible teaches that genuine faith and repentance must come together. Its part of understanding the gospel.
Now I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance. For you were grieved as God willed, so that you didn’t experience any loss from us. For godly grief produces a repentance not to be regretted and leading to salvation, but worldly grief produces death.
At some point in the Eunuch’s understanding of the gospel, he must have experienced repentance for his sins ad faith that Jesus would forgive his sins and save him. we know that the Eunuch accepts this because he expresses his faith with the desire to be baptized.
Doctor Emit Brown, from the Back to The Future Series, invented a Mind-Wave Analyzer in 1955. He tired it out on Marty McFly the night he traveled back in time. He suck a probe on Marty’s forehead while he attached a metal hat on his own head. Both were connected to a super computer that was supposed to transfer Marty’s thoughts to Doc Brown’s consciousness.
The illustration will fall in many levels, but I think i can capture one thing. God uses you to bring his thoughts, his message, his hope to the heart of unbelievers. It doesn’t happen through a machine that attaches to the forehead, but it does happen through a message and a good sovereign God who uses your obedience to bring the good news to the lost. He will provide the understanding needed to make a commitment to His Son.
God removes all barriers for a commitment to His gospel (Acts 8:36-40).
God removes all barriers for a commitment to His gospel (Acts 8:36-40).
As they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look, there’s water! What would keep me from being baptized?” [And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”] Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any longer. But he went on his way rejoicing. Philip appeared in Azotus, and he was traveling and evangelizing all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
Something happened to the Eunuch. His heart as changed. The Eunuch sees water and wants to be baptized. He asks rhetorical question, “What would keep me from being baptized?” The word for “keep me from”is a verb that indicates barriers have been removed. What barriers have been removed?
Removed the barrier of unbelief
The Eunuch did not only understand the gospel, he believed the gospel. He had genuine faith.
It is not enough for us to know about the good news. You must on Jesus to save you personally.
Saving faith, according to Wayne Grudem, is trust in Jesus Christ as a living person for forgiveness of sins and for eternal life with God.
Nicodemus said to Jesus,
This man came to Him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one could perform these signs You do unless God were with him.”
Nicodemus looked at Jesus’s life and ministry and decided that Jesus was at the very least a teacher who came from God. But Nicodemus did not having saving faith in John 3. He had to get to the place where he believed in him, putting his trust in Christ for salvation. That is he depends on Jesus for salvation. God removed the barrier of unbelief from the Eunuch by granting repentance and faith.
Removed the barrier of the Law
Remember, the Eunuch had to worship God from a distance because of his castration. Jesus fulfilled the law with his life and death. Paul says in Ephesians 15, “In his flesh, 15 he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace.” No longer would he be denied the presence of God in the temple. Jesus removes that barrier of the law granting hims full access to the Father by faith.
Removed the barrier of Racial Prejudice
The Eunuch was a black Gentile from the land of Cush. God kept his promise that salvation was for all people of all ethnicities. No longer were the Jews the only ones to have full access to the Father. No longer were the Gentiles to be seen as lesser than or other than.
But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah.
When the Messiah came, He proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.
I love the way Wayne Grudem describes the significance of the Eunuch's faith and the church: “The Ethiopian Eunuch, a black Gentile was baptized and received into full membership in the people of Jesus Christ, and his heart was ecstatic with joy, as was heaven.”
God ensures his kingdom will advance to all peoples by preparing the way for His gospel, providing understanding of His gospel, and removing all barriers for a commitment to His gospel.
We are not postmen for the United States of America carrying letters from one city to another. We are Christians with the full resources o the kingdom of heaven granted to us by the power and authority in the name of Jesus Christ. We have His Spirit to lead us to joyfully advance His kingdom. We are ensured success because he prepares the way for the heart to receive the gospel. he provides understanding to believe the gospel so that whoever hears and believes can exercise genuine faith for salvation. Finally,he removes all barriers so that anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.