study here in the Book of Acts, and we've seen the gospel go to Samaria. We considered that last time I had opportunity to preach. And whenever we consider this chapter, we consider this book, I'd remind you that when we read the Book of Acts, we are considering the establishment of the church, the foundations of the church. And if you have ever been by a construction site, building a home or some other type of building, you've seen the equipment moving dirt, maybe laying concrete.
And this is what's happening by the power of the Holy Spirit of the Sacred Church, the foundation of the church is being laid. On the face of value, we see Jesus is born, that he lived, he died, he was again, he has sinned into heaven. And the Book of Acts reveals to us the account of the word going forth to, and people believing in Jesus. And surely what we find here is the hope of the gospel, and it is a simple and understandable message that we're going to see proclaimed here in our chapter in Acts, chapter 8, or verses in Acts, chapter 8.
But when we break down, when we break this down, and we take these accounts and encounters, and we ring them out, or we dissect them, or we look under the hood, when we get past the cover of the book, so to speak, we begin to see in detail how glorious of an event this is. Sometimes I wonder if we've lost the sense of awe and wonder, the simple fact that men, women and children are saved by the grace of God. And we may be tempted to read through this book and find these accounts may be repetitive, may be maybe lifeless, may be stale history. But as we read the testimony that God saves sinners, we should find a hearty love and desire for passages like this, because we see for us our own salvation.
And so we're going to see from our passage this evening, really the hope of the gospel, this word going forth from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth. And we begin to see this corner turn to the ends of the earth. So before I read God's word, would you pray with me on this pray? Father, we ask that you would open our eyes that we may see wondrous things in your word.
And Lord, that we might marvel at one like the Ethiopian eunuch to come to save you faith in Christ, and might we marvel at your power to save sinners like us, to call us to save you faith in Jesus. And so what might we find a light in this text this evening? Lord, might we love it, might be cherished, might we hide it in our hearts? And pray and ask this in Jesus name.
And this is God's word being asked after 8 verse 26, let us hear here. 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 it 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. And 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. And now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this, like a sheep he was led to this slaughter, and like a lamb before it's shear is his silent. And so he opens not his mouth. And his humiliation, justice was denied him, who can describe his generation, for his life is taken away from the earth.
And the eunuch said, Philip, about whom I ask you this, the prophets say this about himself, or so about someone else. And 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's water, what prevents me from being baptized. And he commanded the chariot to stop.
They both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him. And 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 Azadis and he passed through and preached the gospel to all the towns as we came to Caesarea.
The grass withers and the flowerfalls, but the word of our God stands forever and ever. Thanks be to God. Now last week we considered the outpouring of God's saving grace in Samaria, which in and of itself is quite shocking, sworn enemies in many ways of Israel, like estranged family members. The Lord brought them into the family of God through Christ.
We saw that the revival that had taken place was uniquely linked to Pentecost and it wasn't prescriptive for the Christian experience, but it wasn't its own right, a redemptive historical moment that showed forth the expansion of the Kingdom of God from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth. And the point was that a Samaritan had received the same Holy Spirit and had so been engrafted into God's people through Christ. And unless we think this to be the only way God operates, we might wonder if the gospel message in the Word of God would go forth like a tidal wave, consuming all that would come in its wake. And yet we see in this passage we see that yes God works and grants swaths and bringing revival, whether it be through Peter's preaching at Pentecost or that work throughout Jerusalem or even Samaria, that here it seems more like a trickle.
We find what I think here to be a first fruit story regarding this Ethiopian man. Now before we think about where this takes place geographically, I want you to consider where this takes place in the book of Acts narratively. We should understand that when we come to the scriptures that it is in fact literature, albeit divine and inspired literature. History in the Bible isn't the rambling of a three-year-old trying to tell you what happened.
If you ask Jenny what did you do today, we'll buckle up as you can tell you what we did today. Right? This and then this and then this and then this and then this and then this. Every little detail as much as you can remember.
But the book of Acts isn't like that. It reads like spiritual history or history making a theological point. And so even in its structure it communicates something to us. And specifically in our text this evening we must consider what happens in chapter 9 which is again a major turning point in the life and ministry of the church that will dramatically affect the events moving forward.
You know we'll see Paul's conversion and subsequent commissioning as a pivotal moment in the life of the church. So again we find what we find in our text is not the quick grand transformation of people but it's something as equally glorious of argument. First what I want you to notice about this passage is that there is and this is an unlikely place. Okay.
First point this is an unlikely place. I wonder what a missions committee might think of Philip leading Samaria where arguably much fruit had been born and is continuing to be born. It's traveling south into the desert. You may not know this but the past couple of decades or so has seen a boom in philosophies of missions centering around the city.
And it don't mean silo-um or gentry or even fayetteville or bittenbill for that matter but big cities. New York Chicago LA. The idea goes if you want to win the culture so that if you want to win influence you've got to win the city. Well surely Philip's strategy would not fall into this mindset.
For he leaves the city and goes into the country really into the wilderness into the desert. What's interesting though is his reason for leaving Samaria. In fact I think it addresses this modern over emphasis on the city which again has received some healthy pushback in previous years but but we might think the remedy of a modern church who thinks the city is more important in the country is to fight to love the small town, the humble community, the farmlands and the fields more. What's interesting is that I'm not so sure that's necessarily the right answer.
In fact if we were to take a page from Philip's playbook it's not to show both the country and if we were to take a play from Philip's playbook it's to show the city and the country both the love of Christ and then doing so following the Holy Spirit's leading or the direction of the Lord. You see geography is important in the scriptures and so when the Lord directs Philip south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza we have to understand that as he goes into the wilderness he comes across not any mere chance encounter. He doesn't really stumble upon a man in the desert. As he obeys the Lord and follows his command so we see that this is a divine appointment according to the Lord's direction.
A divine appointment that he Philip takes the gospel as he would go. There are two things we should take in this verse. First we need to see the divine hand of God at work and establishing his church. It is God who clears the land, it is God who lays the foundation, it is God who erects the frame, it is God who lays the bricks and shingles the roof and finishes and decorates the house and even paints it.
And I need you to hear that as your pastor in one of your pastors that we need to be reminded of this that God builds his church and while he may use what we call secondary means right he uses Philip and his ministry here for example likely he uses his personality and his intellect and his proximity to bring this man to save faith it is still the Lord at work. I don't deny that the Lord grants strengths and weaknesses and even desires right but the Lord doesn't grind gears as one of my professors would say as he calls and equips and sends but it doesn't change the fact that God is at work establishing his church and I wonder if that's a comforting thought for you but as you live in Christ and as you are sent out going about your day-to-day life as God is using you to build his church and you are not and I am not meant to bear the burden of building Christ's church according to our own plans or by our own strength. In praise the Lord for that right we are the tools or instruments that God fashions and uses in fact we're imperfect tools that are probably more so from from Harbor Freight than than than Snapon or Snapco. But here we see that God uses us to for his glory and praise just like he uses Philip.
Secondly we tend to bog down in this idea of the Lord's sins right here by word of an angel. Our modern church culture is obsessed with knowing the Lord's leading or knowing God's will for me or for my life and what's interesting here throughout this account we're told the angel and in the spirit told Philip where to go and what to do. So the question may be well how does God typically direct his people? Our people say all the time God told me to right to do something to go somewhere to say something to not say something.
What's interesting especially when we go to the vax that we see elsewhere too when we read of these very clear spiritual guidances like we'll see in chapter 9 my directing even Philip here in chapter 8 they were always directed to God's redemptive and saving purposes right that that's to say this is not how God normally works but he provides special direction to accomplish his grandderective plans here in the book of acts. But okay here this big this big conjunction here okay this doesn't mean that God doesn't speak to you for simply put God speaks to us in his word and he has spoken to us by the word and in through Jesus Christ and when we want to hear the voice of God or know the will of God we we look to the scriptures but even still there have been times and where you have felt nudged in prayer resolve to act according to the scriptures comforted through the words of other God be people even given direction but we must remember that the scriptures work on us prayer works on us the sacraments work on us that when we pray through faith we speak personally and intimately with our Savior when we open our vitals God speaks to us I like how John Piper puts it he says it this way he says God talks to me no other way but don't get this wrong he talks to me very personal I open my Bible in the morning to meet my friend my Savior my creator my sustainer I meet him and he talks to me so then what is it that leads us to make the right decision to share the gospel with just the right person to wait for to make a decision that piece in times of conflict what is that leads us then well did you know Japan is known for having square water pellets it's a strange site maybe imagine a square watermelon but apparently at a certain stage in their growth Japanese people doing what they do best and being efficient and in leading with innovation they they at a certain stage of their growth they put the young fruit in a box and as it grows it takes the shape of its container long and rectangular you can imagine what I do this to do this to save space they do this to help with transportation maybe you had a watermelon roll away from you before okay that doesn't happen with square watermelons because when watermelons are square you can stack them and they stay put and I think when it comes to us feeling the leading of the Lord what people really mean when they say I felt the Lord tell me oftentimes and always as a result of the spirit growing us in the shape of Christ right as we've been informed and as we've been shaped by the scriptures and prayer as we've been built up and worshiped as we've been convicted by sermons as we've been recycled by the saints as we've grown our fear and admonition of the Lord our decisions and our sentiments are informed by what God has told us and reminded us through ordinary and boring sermons or those forgettable days of opening your Bible and praying unto God around the table when your parents and grandparents would read the Bible with you. The Lord does lead you and he uses every sermon every Bible study every conference every conversation every moment of conviction every moment of being reminded and restored in your sin every moment of praise and prayer he uses he's a form and fashion that you might go about doing his will. Secondly what I want you to see this evening is yes we see an unlikely place but there's also an unlikely person an unlikely person and so it Philip sees as he went he saw a chariot which would have been somewhat a rare sight indicating a passenger of some considerable station or wealth as he approached he found an Ethiopian man who apparently wasn't charged of all the queen's treasure the king queen of the Ethiopians.
This man who somehow though being Ethiopian not Jewish had become a follower of Yahweh and he accomplished a Jerusalem to worship and it would seem that probably he had just acquired a scroll of the prophet Isaiah and he back in Jerusalem and so essentially Philip comes upon this foreign wealthy convert reading his scriptures in the middle of the desert. God must be at work in this his hand must be guiding in leading this but with this unlikely person there are seemingly some insurmountable problems and that's what we need to focus on. First this man was a Gentile he was not ethnically Jewish and he seemingly had converted in some way to Judaism but also he was a eunuch which not not only means that he was unable to receive the covenant sign of circumcision but according to Deuteronomy it was known he was not allowed to enter the temple even through the Gentile gate. We've seen already so many welcomed into Christ and into the church Jews from both Jerusalem and throughout the Roman Empire.
We've even seen the Samaritans as they were welcomed into the church and were being prepared in this passage to see the Gentiles will be welcomed into the church as well and here not merely any Gentile but one who is a eunuch. Again chapter 9 will begin the ministry of Paul who will be the great missionary to the Gentiles and here is that first beam of dawning light the coming redemption to the ends of the earth just barely rises and is visible above the horizon. In church it begins with an Old Testament scroll. It begins with the Word of God at the center which is Jesus Christ and what's interesting is there's a good reason for you to look at this passage and see gloriously that we have a hermeneutic when it comes we have a means of interpretation when it comes to seeing the Old Testament in light of the New Testament and the New Testament in light of the Old Testament.
Your Old Testaments are important and yet here he's reading out loud as Philip walks up Isaiah 53 verse 7 like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before it shear is silent so he opens not his mouth and his humiliation justness was denied him who can describe his generation for his life is taken away from the earth. Now you and I know this to be a promise that Jesus Christ would come and he would suffer and he would die for the sake of his people taking away their sins and providing them his righteousness that all who come to him come to him through faith not external signs like circumcision but come to him through faith but we're all of our evangelism counters like this right about whom I ask you does the prophets say that's about himself or about someone else and you can imagine Philip filled with the Holy Spirit ready and rearing to tell him about Jesus Christ and we see that this gospel proclamation ends with a glorious profession yes an unlikely place yes an unlikely person but all the more a glorious profession of faith our last point. Philip brings this man and you and that matter to the heart of redemption for all people Luke might as well be turning to his audience and linking at them this is the the Jim Halpert looking into the camera at Dunder Mifflin right Jesus is the hope of the nations and he is the one for whom or this prophecy was written and Paul who soon would learn this himself writes to the Ephesians he says therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands remember that you were at that time separated from Christ alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenant a promise having no hope and without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus you who are once for off have been brought near by the blood of Christ for he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in him and his flesh the dividing wall of hostility you know what's a striking about this passage is the implicit reality that this Ethiopian man could not enter the temple he could not worship God as it was commanded but through Christ the law of the commandments expressed in ordinances right where we're abolished they were fulfilled and the dividing wall of hostility between nations and ethnicities has been taken down and those who were strangers to the covenant of promises were brought near by the blood of Christ and in church you realize that it's true of the Ethiopian unique and it's true of you as I assume most of us were not ethnically Jewish I'm assuming most of us the original dials but that same hope for this Ethiopian man is yours today that Jesus is the perfect sacrifice the Lamb of God who takes away the sense of the world and just as with Philip who opened his mouth mind you and spoke words beginning with the scripture he told him the good news about Jesus the Ethiopian man heard the good news of Jesus Christ and believed upon his name we see there's a response here to going and desiring to be baptized they find water and they go and he receives that sign of the sign pointing to a faith that God has worked in him and what a glorious sight isn't there great rejoicing when someone believes in Christ and professes faith but I don't want you to miss you the glory of the gospel might of Jesus and ushering in the new covenant because Ethiopian man who again was barred from entering the temple who is in himself cannot fully be a part of the Jewish community has been brought into and through has been brought into the church and welcomed in faith where he was excluded he has now been included and we can understand that joy again the same is true day there is no one excluded who comes to Christ through faith in that we read that is God who draws them doesn't matter the color of skin it doesn't matter the place they were born it doesn't matter their history or even their failures unless be very careful when we hear Paul say there is neither Jew nor Greek there's neither slate nor free there is no male and female for you all are one in Christ Jesus and so let us be open with ourselves when we hear Paul speak of our union Christ and let us long that God would bring all into his kingdom all into his kingdom let's repent if you would ever stand in the way of God's good promises for this is the very intention of this promise going forward but here we have the crux in the matter the same Christ proclaimed by Philip is the same one we proclaim this evening the same faith that say the Ethiopian man is the same faith that the spirit has born in you and do you realize that you are downstream from this moment God's saving chin tops for Jesus Christ lived and died again the spotless Lamb of God died to take away the sins of the world and so you are generation at the generation at the generation think of all the the sovereign leading of God directing this course of the proclamation of the gospel and establishing the church over two thousand years of history that you would hear the gospel and be saved that your faith would be born in you Christ God is your sense I be forgiven and those who believe upon his name and trust in Christ alone right they're ones who know forgiveness so what we need to see is that God in his work that God sovereignly is at work and saving people for himself you might we delight that if you were here in Christ this evening as you let us be praised that God has seen fit to save sinners like us and let's pray that God would do all the more abundantly than we can ask for thank you let's pray together