Preaching Jesus One By One

Transcript

GR 1600
04/10/11
Preaching Jesus One by One
Acts 8:26-40
Gil Rugh


We're going to Acts 8 in your Bibles. We see as we study the early history of the church, the beginning years of its existence, that it is an unfolding of God's plan of evangelism in mercy and grace in moving that the message of His salvation might be carried out beyond the confines of the nation Israel. Realize what a radical, dramatic change is taking place, that the focus of God's work in the world has centered in the nation Israel. There has been no real evangelism program, missionary outreach. God was centered in Israel and was working in the nation Israel. The other nations were of significance and importance only as they interacted with the nation Israel. And there is no evangelism outreach to those nations. But now we have a totally new program where God has established the church and now the gospel is being carried to the world. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son in order that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Certain things we want to keep in mind and we keep reminding ourselves of what is taking place, how this early evangelism and expansion is being carried out. 1. People of various ranks, religion, and race are being confronted with the gospel. We're just seeing they are beginning to move out. We've had the Jews initially, beginning in Acts 2 that had the privilege of hearing the message of God's salvation for a long time. But now they hear again with the work of Christ the coming of the Spirit. Then we move to Samaria. Now we've moved outside the bounds of pure Judaism to those who were of mixed blood, Jews who had intermarried with non-Jews, people who had established their own religion. They have become a distinct race from the Jews. We come to the end of the book of Acts; we're going to see an outreach that moves far beyond Jerusalem, a thousand miles away as the gospel is carried to the Ethiopian eunuch. They don't have to go a thousand miles to give him the gospel because he has been visiting Jerusalem. But here's a man journeying back to his homeland and he is presented the gospel, and we'll read the record of his salvation.

A second thing to note, no matter where we are, and we'll see this as we move on through the book of Acts, no matter what kind of people, what their background, what their religion. We'll get to the pagans, the outright pagans and so on, doesn't matter, there is only one message and it's the message of Jesus Christ. That's consistent.

Come back to Acts 2. We'll see God's program for the church and its ministry in the world. It is very simple, it is very clear. In Acts 2 the first sermon preached after the church is established with the coming of the Holy Spirit, preached by Peter. Verse 22, men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst just as you yourselves know, this man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again. You see the simple clarity of the gospel as it is presented, the person and work of Jesus Christ. And we saw the result of that with numbers of people saved.

In Acts 3:13 Peter gives his second sermon and it's a repeat of the first one basically, because the substance is the message of Christ. Verse 13, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified His servant, Jesus, the One whom you delivered over and disowned in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release Him. But you disowned the holy and righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you and put to death the Prince of Life, the One whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are all witnesses. You see that message again, it comes back to the basic fact—the Person and work of Jesus Christ. I want to tell you about Jesus Christ, who He is, what He did, the importance of His death on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins. And He was raised from the dead, He is alive.

Acts 4:10, Peter speaking again. Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Christ Jesus the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. By this name this man stands here in good health. He is the stone which the builders rejected. You see the simple but direct presentation of the message of Christ—by the name of Jesus the Nazarene, the One whom you crucified, the One whom God raised from the dead—the simple facts of the gospel. Is there any of us who can't tell someone about Jesus Christ? Yes, He's the Son of God, He walked this earth, did mighty miracles. He was crucified on the cross and in the plan of God that was the way sin would be paid for. And God raised Him from the dead. And you can be saved by believing in Him. A simple, clear message.

Verse 12 as he follows through on that. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. You know the idea that people have different religious beliefs and different views is not new. But the message we have is there is no other name under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. There is only one way of salvation and that's through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Acts 5:29, but Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men, when the Sanhedrin attempted to tell them they could no longer tell people about Jesus Christ. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. He is the One whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses of these things. And so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.

In Acts 7, we've just come through the experience of Stephen and what he proclaims. Verse 51, you men are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears, are always resisting the Holy Spirit, doing just as your fathers did. Confronting them with the awfulness of their sin. Which of the prophets didn't your fathers persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. You crucified the Righteous One, the Savior that God had provided. Verse 55, being full of the Holy Spirit he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and said, behold, I see heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. What a declaration, He is alive, He has been raised, He has ascended to heaven, and He is a living Savior. This in the face of those who were rushing upon Him to kill Him. Nothing changes, the message is the same—it's about Jesus Christ.

We came down to Acts 8:5. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began to preach Christ to them, proclaimed Christ to them. We are now moving out to a different group of people, a different race from the Jews, if you will, because of their mixed blood. Had their own different religious system. How are we going to reach the Samaritans? We have to devise a unique plan for them because they have no openness to the Jews; they don't even talk to Jews. The Jews and Samaritans have no dealings. What are we going to do? Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. Nothing changes. We're going to find that patterns.

Down in verse 25, we're going to pick up here in a moment. So when they had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem and were preaching the gospel to the many villages of the Samaritans. It just goes on. Down in verse 35, we'll be looking at this section. Philip opened his mouth and beginning from the scripture he preached Jesus to them. Down in verse 40, passing along through the cities, traveling through Samaria, he kept preaching the gospel. You know the ministry entrusted to us as the church of Jesus Christ and to us individually as the followers of Christ is simple—tell people about Christ, talk to people about Christ. Isn't amazing how tongue tied we can become? I can talk to them about the golf tournament today, and talk to them about sports and talk about the weather and talk about politics. And then I get to talk about Christ and my tongue becomes cotton, I just don't know what to say. And then we say, it's just not me. Well, that's not true, we talk all the time. What should be more natural to us than to talk about Christ? Right? He's our Savior; He's the One that we love, that we serve. That's the ministry the church has. How sad it is that the church keeps producing seminars and books and on and on it goes to tell the church how to grow, how to do this, how to do that. We just come and find the simple plan unfolded in the early history of the church.

We're talking about the ministry of Philip in Acts 8. He was one of those men chosen in Acts 6, godly men, full of the Holy Spirit to help resolve the conflict and see that the widows from the Hellenistic Jews segment of the church were taken care of. Division in the church can be handled; we don't have to have a Hellenistic Jewish church and a Jewish church. We can resolve the problem, and they do.

Philip has to leave the Jerusalem region because of persecution. We saw how the hand of God is in it. The death of Stephen, the relentless persecution of the church, God uses it in His plan to spread the gospel now to Samaria. When Philip preached the gospel in Samaria the Samaritans responded in faith and believed and were baptized. But they did not receive the Holy Spirit, because remember in the book of Acts we have this transition and the development of the church. So the apostles in Jerusalem send Peter and John down to Samaria. And in spite of what some commentators say, they are not going down to see that Philip did a good job, they are down there as apostolic representatives. They are apostles and they represent the apostolic leadership of the church that is centered in Jerusalem. And when they come down and lay hands on the Samaritans, they receive the Holy Spirit. Even though it's not mentioned here, obviously they spoke in tongues because the Jews wouldn't have accepted the Samaritans on any other basis than with the same evidence that the Jews had in Acts 2. And we looked at that. That guaranteed that the church would remain unified under apostolic leadership and apostolic teaching and doctrine. So we didn't end up with a Samaritan church and a Jewish church. We had Peter and John brought into the picture for that and there we saw Simon and early we see one who gets caught up in declaring he has faith and being baptized, but is not genuinely saved. And Peter brought a strong rebuke to him.

Then verse 25 told us, when they had solemnly testified and spoken the word of God they started back to Jerusalem. And on their way back to Jerusalem they passed through the region of Samaria. And so as they go through other cities and villages of the Samaritans, they preach the gospel to them as they return to Jerusalem. Then with verse 26 we pick up with Philip again because it is his ministry we are following. He brought the gospel to the Samaritans. What about Philip now?

Well verse 26 is where we pick up the account. But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, get up and go south to the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert, a desert road as we have it. An angel of the Lord intervenes directly in Philip's life. He has manifested the characteristics of a prophet as he has brought the word of God to Samaria; his ministry has been validated by miracles as he brought the truth. You know it seems to me a strange thing to do. You have a great evangelistic response, a crusade; you might refer to it as a revival in a broad sense here. The Samaritans have been receptive to the ministry of the word. Now they clearly see that the message of Christ has been confirmed with the coming of the Spirit. And now an angel from the Lord takes hold of Philip and tells him, leave Samaria and go south to Gaza. He's going to leave a broad ministry that is seeing people getting saved and go down to a desert area and evangelize one person. This is not the way we would do it. We like big things. I mean, if you are getting this kind of response and this kind of happening....... But you know what? With the beauty of the simplicity of the message of the gospel and it being established that these Samaritans who have believed should look to the apostles for their teaching and doctrine, the ministry is left with them. Isn't it amazing how quickly that the Spirit of God turns over the ministry to people? We should expect maturity and growth in certain position that is required in the leadership in the church and so on, but to think Philip better stay here and make sure the Samaritans stay on track. But what does the Spirit of God do? Through an angel directs him to leave Samaria and go down to Gaza.

Now we have a strong emphasis through the book of Acts on the sovereignty of God, He is directing the program of the church. Really, it is out of the hands of the church. They wouldn't have selected a program that involved the execution of Stephen, the shattering persecution of the church that was causing believers to be driven out from Jerusalem. But that's the sovereign plan of God. Now to take Philip from Samaria and send him south to Gaza, that wouldn't have been the plan, either. But God is sovereign, His plan is not always our plan or our plan is not always His plan. What Luke is emphasizing here is God has directed what is going on.

So he goes down to the desert area of Gaza. Verse 27, so he got up and went. You know, simple obedience is the best action, isn't it? You don't find Philip carrying on a conversation with the angel. You know these Samaritans, look at what we're getting, look at the result that is happening here. This is not a good time to leave. God's time is always a good time, it's the best time, and it’s the only time.

So he goes down to Gaza and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians who was in charge of all her treasure. He was the treasurer for this kingdom. He had come to Jerusalem to worship. We are familiar with Gaza. You come down south to Gaza on a desert road, so we're out of a population area. This Ethiopian eunuch is on his way south. You know he has come to Jerusalem, we're told at the end of verse 27, to worship. He is in a chariot, we're not told the details of it. But you know that's a long trip. Going back to where he is going is a thousand miles. So we have a long way to go in a chariot. He is obviously a committed worshiper of the God of the Jews. He comes to Jerusalem and makes this journey to worship.

He's a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. We've talked about Ethiopia in other studies. It is not modern day Ethiopia; in the Old Testament it is called Cush. It would be part of modern day Sudan, down in Africa; the inhabitants of this region would have been black as to their racial identity. This man is a court official, he is a eunuch. Interestingly, according to Deuteronomy 23, the opening verse, as a eunuch he was not allowed into the temple for worship. But he comes up to be part of that worship system even though he is excluded from certain aspects of it. So there is a real commitment on his part. Called a court official of Candace. Candace was not a personal name of a queen, but it was a title like our Pharaoh, President, something like that. And interestingly she would have been the queen mother. She really was the one who ran the country. Her son would have been the official king, but he was viewed as a child of the Sun (s-u-n). And so was excluded from the political activity because that would not have been right for one of a god-like character. So she comes to the fore here because the queen mother was the one who really was active in ruling and we identify as the Candace, the candikus, the ruler.

So this man is important. He is identified as one with power. He had charge of all her treasure. So he is the treasurer of the kingdom, if you will. For an important official he had come to worship at Jerusalem. It’s going to be interesting here. But who is he? Is he a Jew who has lived down there? A eunuch and become identified. Some would hold that because he comes to Jerusalem to worship. If he is an Ethiopian which seems to be the likely situation here since he is identified as an Ethiopian eunuch, probably this would have been his nationality as well, can't say for sure, he would have been a Gentile who hears the gospel. But he doesn't get the prominence of that that Cornelius will get in Acts 10 because it's not official. Here is an isolated person going to be removed from the region, but we do see the gospel moving out, whatever his condition. Because before this is done, he will be a saved man, returning back now to carry the gospel to the court of the queen and to share that with others. You wonder what the history there was. But you see that God is carrying this out to other regions.

Look at verse 28, he was returning and sitting in his chariot and was reading the prophet Isaiah. We see something of his position and power because he is wealthy enough to have his own copy of Isaiah. That's not something ordinary people had because in those days they were all hand done and too expensive for just an average person to have. So here is a man in his position, as he is reading in his chariot what is he doing? He is reading the prophet Isaiah.

The Spirit said to Philip, go up and join this chariot. So Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet. I want to read you what someone wrote about reading, because he is obviously reading out loud because Philip can hear. Reading in antiquity was almost invariably done aloud. Why this should be so would be apparent to anyone who tries to read a copy of an ancient manuscript. The words need to be spelled out, this is done more easily aloud than in silence. In addition beginners regularly read aloud, it requires considerable experience to read silently, though this stage is reached more quickly with modern print than with ancient handwriting. We still do today. If you are trying to read a handwritten letter and you are working through it, sometimes you read it out loud to yourself. It just seems to come as you try to form words, as you try to make it out as you go along. So the fact that he is sitting here reading out loud is not unusual. He's reading a handwritten scroll of the prophet Isaiah.

Philip comes running up. And he would be moving along, he's not racing along with the chariot, he has a long trip here. So the chariot is going along, probably not much more than a walking pace and Philip catches up to the chariot, comes alongside it and hears him reading the prophet Isaiah. So he asks him, do you understand what you are reading? And he said, well, how could I unless someone guides me? He is reading it but he doesn't understand what he is reading. He invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of scripture he was reading is this, he was led as a sheep to slaughter and as a lamb before its shearers is silent, in humiliation his judgment was taken away. For his life is removed from the earth. Isn't it amazing? You see the sovereign hand of God in all of this. I mean, Philip has been sent from Samaria to Gaza, a lonely desert region because there is one man there that must hear the gospel from Philip. And this one man just happens to be reading in the prophecy of Isaiah. And he just happens to be reading in the prophecy of Isaiah in chapter 53. And he acknowledges, I don't understand.

What's his question? Verse 34, the eunuch answered Philip and said, please tell me of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or someone else? He has no understanding here, there is not clarity here. The Jews were not clear on this, they didn't have understanding that Isaiah 53 was talking about their Messiah coming and being rejected and suffering and dying for sin and being raised from the dead. They didn't understand that. It was something that took the coming of Christ to bring clarity to. Even the believing prophets, who were used to bring the message, remember Peter said they didn't understand. They never understood how the prophecies of the suffering of the Messiah and the ruling and reigning in glory of Messiah all tied together. So he is reading this and says, tell me who. Is Isaiah talking about himself here? That's a logical question. Or is he talking about someone else? You appreciate here the seriousness of this Ethiopian, Jewish worshiper. I don't know what he is talking about.

Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning from this scripture he preached Jesus to him. So Philip doesn't limit himself there, so it's not just this verse. He'll talk about Isaiah 53 in its breadth, the breadth of Isaiah 53. This is the particular portion that the eunuch was reading out loud, verses 7-8, but he has Isaiah here with him. So Philip can explain from this scripture what it said and why he was a sheep led to slaughter. And how Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And He gave His life. He didn't limit him there, he could have gone to other scriptures in Isaiah to show him what Isaiah says and then take him to other scriptures—Isaiah 42, Isaiah 49, Isaiah 50 and so on, showing him, here's what the scriptures say about Jesus the Nazarene. He preached Jesus to him. What do you do now? When you are preaching to the Jews, what do you preach to them? You preach the simple message of Jesus Christ. When you go to the Samaritans with their different religion and different practices, what do you preach to them? You preach Jesus to them. You come to a eunuch from Ethiopia, an important man, an influential man, a man of power in his country. What do you do? You preach Jesus to him. Notice the simplicity? As a believer in Jesus Christ and entrusted with the gospel you are ready to talk to anyone. If the President of the United States called you to come and visit him. I'm ready. Wouldn't have to run around wondering what to say. Tell him about Jesus, tell him about the salvation that Christ provided. Why else would you go? Talk about politics and waste your time there? I mean, there are hundreds of people who want to talk to him about politics. If God gives you the opportunity you are there to represent Him and talk about Jesus. The beauty of the simplicity of it. He preached Jesus to him.

Verse 36, as they went along the road. Here they are riding along in this chariot, bumping along. You know they didn't have paved roads in those days. Bouncing along reading this handwritten manuscript, and Philip is explaining to him and he is drinking it all in. And it has become clearer and clearer to him and he believes. And an evidence of his belief—they came to some water and the eunuch said, look, water. What prevents me from being baptized? We say, well how did he learn about baptism? Evidently Philip told him what happened, and he told him that Jesus had instructed His followers to go and make disciples of all the nations and teach them and baptize them in His name. And so he might have told him about the coming of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost when the Jews believed in Jesus Christ and they were baptized as public identification with Christ. Because when the eunuch sees water here, remember they were traveling a desert road, they come to a little pond of water. There is water, I can be baptized. You see his faith being manifest. I can declare my faith in Christ, he identified with Him. You see that ready response. He doesn't have to be talked into it. I want to be identified as a follower of the Messiah of Israel, the Savior of the world.

We have verse 37 where Philip said, if you believe with all your heart, you may be baptized. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. As you have a note in your margin, early manuscripts do not contain this verse. The oldest manuscripts we have of the New Testament don't contain it, early in the second century it is found. So most don't believe that it was part of the original text here. The substance of what is here would be true because for Philip to baptize him, he would have had to declare his faith in Jesus Christ and the message of Christ that Philip was presenting. But just a note that this verse may not be part of the original text that Luke wrote; there is division and discussion over that on the family of manuscripts. The older manuscripts versus some of the newer ones, but we have more of the newer ones.

At any rate the message is that he has been preaching Christ and the same message he preached to the Samaritans. So it is a message about Jesus Christ. And what is the purpose of preaching Christ? That people believe in Him. The manifestation of the eunuch's faith is his faith in Christ.

And so verse 38, he ordered the chariot to stop. They both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. Evidently there is a sizable amount of water here as they go down into the water. One of the indications that baptism is by immersion in the New Testament. You know, if it's just a matter of sprinkling some water on him, he could have done that from his water bottle. If this is just a pond of water you don't have to go down into it to baptize someone if you are just going to sprinkle a little water on him. We're not going to get into the manner of baptism. But we do find a pattern developed here. Remember back in Acts 2, what happened when the Jews believed? They were baptized. What happened with the Samaritans in Acts 8 earlier? Verse 12, they were being baptized, men and women alike. What happened to the Ethiopian eunuch? He was baptized. It is a declaration of my faith in Christ. It's not part of my salvation in that salvation is not complete without baptism, but it is a way of declaring my faith. Some people say I give my testimony in other ways. That's fine, but Jesus Christ said, when you make disciples, teach them and baptize them. So there are going to be other ways to give your testimony and there are, but that does not mean that I am free to ignore the one way that He told me to be sure to do. Be baptized. And that's not a sign of maturity because they baptized Simon earlier in Samaria and he turns out to be an unbeliever. So they baptized him on his profession of faith. It's not Philip's fault or problem that his profession of faith was not genuine. It's not well, he shouldn't have baptized Simon until he was sure. He baptized upon profession of faith. That happens to the Ethiopian eunuch here immediately.

The chariot stops, they went down to the water, Philip and the eunuch together, and he baptized him. Remarkable, a eunuch saved. Now Philip can travel with him maybe south to Ethiopia, and what an influence. I mean, you'll have the court of the queen opened up when he returns. I mean, he must have some influence with the queen that she let him go and take this long trip. We are told that it would take five months each way to make this trip, I read in the commentaries. I mean, he is absent from home a long time. His beliefs must have been important to him and they must have known of them in the court of the queen. What an opportunity. Now we know why the Lord sent Philip from Samaria to leave that great evangelistic opportunity and send him down to a desert region in Gaza to witness to one man. Because now Philip can travel to Ethiopia and evangelize that whole community and we'll have the court of the queen perhaps behind him. You know, God just doesn't do it our way. I think that's a beautiful plan.

Then I read verse 39, when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. Here you have a brand new believer, have to go back home and study the scripture and grow. I mean, why would the Lord do that? What an opportunity. I mean, do you want to evangelize the world or don't you? The Lord snatched Philip away. And the eunuch no longer saw him. So he started to cry. No, he went on his way rejoicing because it is not all about Philip. I know the Savior; I know the One prophesied in Isaiah 53. He's the One who saved me, cleansed me from my sin. I belong to Him, I'm rejoicing. Praise the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, caught him away. Interesting word would indicate a supernatural thing. They come up out of the water and Philip is gone, caught away, removed. I wonder what happened to him? He's gone, the word harpazo, snatched away. It's the word used in I Thessalonians 4 of the rapture of the church, to be caught up, snatched up, raptured. Rapture comes from the Latin word. People say the word rapture doesn't appear in the Bible. No, because the Bible wasn't written in Latin but we have some words that have been derived from other languages that were used. If you don't like the word rapture because it's not used in the Bible, then tell them we're going to be harpazoed, snatched away. And here Philip is snatched away, not in the rapture of the church, but just caught up and removed. This gives you an idea of what is going to happen when I Thessalonians 4 takes place and we are caught up to meet the Lord in the area. Just gone.

The eunuch no longer but went on his way rejoicing. He already has the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy. And he went on his way rejoicing. Nothing like the joy of the new convert.

Philip found himself at Azotus. We're twenty miles north of Gaza. This is the Ashdod of the Old Testament, the Philistine area in Old Testament days. So he just was caught up, next thing he knows he's in Azotus. And as he passed through he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea. Then he'll move back up the coast up through the region we know as........... you know passing Jerusalem further inland. But we're going back up through the region of Samaria again. We're going up to Caesarea. And this evidently is where now Philip will plant his roots and raise a family. Started out in Jerusalem, he's driven out of there because of persecution, gone to Samaria, been sent down to Gaza, traveled up the coast and settles in Caesarea. We say that because that's the end of Philip as far as the story is concerned.

Except come over to Acts 21. And here we have the account of the journeys of Paul and so on. But verse 8, on the next day we left and came to Caesarea. And entering the house of Philip the evangelist, that's his identification—he's an evangelist. We saw that in Acts 8. Evidently he kept that work of evangelizing going on. He now has four unmarried daughters and they were prophetesses. And as we were staying there for some days a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea and gives a prophecy. So that's how we know. Philip ends up in Caesarea at the end of Acts 8 and then later on in the history when Paul comes to Caesarea, that's where Philip the evangelist has his home. And he has four daughters there who have been gifted of God as prophetesses in this early history of the church. Philip the evangelist.

But just simply, we are ready to come to Acts 9. You'll note there is a change in emphasis coming. Not only have we moved out from the Jews to the Samaritans and the Ethiopians, there has been more of an emphasis on individuals. Simon came to the fore in his response to the gospel, or failure to respond as he should. Then we had the Ethiopian as one who was genuinely saved. Now we're going to come to Acts 9 and we're going to talk about an individual named Saul and his conversion. So that picking out individuals and their response to the gospel. Earlier in Acts we had these crowds and groups and numbers and 3,000 saved. Then we had 5,000 men and many. Now we've narrowed down the focus on some individuals and the particular individual we have been preparing for is Saul in Acts 9 and his conversion, which of course will be a dramatic change insofar as the ministry that is carried on because he'll be used in a unique and special way.

As the church we move through its history. God didn't just record these things for our interest, but so we would learn how He worked. And it's interesting, what we ought to keep in mind, His work today is the same. When Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 10 he said, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. A person must believe to be saved, and they must hear the message of Christ to be saved. That's the simplicity of it. You know, we get concerned with what works, what doesn't work. And by that we mean what kind of response. But the external evidence and manifestation is not what concerns us because God works in the heart. Sometimes He wants to use you in one person's life, sometimes it may be in several people's lives. But when He is going to use us, He's using us for His purpose. We are His mouthpiece giving the message of Christ. That's the simplicity of it. Whether it is with crowds or individuals, we ought not to be deterred or turned aside from what our task is. Wherever we are we ought to be praying, Lord, use me as a mouthpiece. Give me boldness beyond myself. I want to talk to people about Jesus Christ, my Savior. They may not know they need to hear, but I know they need to hear. You've placed the treasure of the gospel in me, an earthen vessel, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians. You've done that so you can get all the glory. I want to be bold for you; I want to talk about you. Like Paul told the Corinthians, we make Christ known in every place. Wherever God puts me, I'm there to make Christ known. I want to talk about Him. We can do that with good manners. We don't have to be rude or interrupting people in an improper way. But we can be looking at every contact and every conversation for the opportunity to talk to them about Christ.

That's the simple plan here. Philip the evangelist helps lead the way for us in manifesting how God uses us. But amazing how God worked in spreading the gospel out, and the Ethiopian eunuch will become a representative for Jesus Christ where he is. That history is not carried on for us, but we are reminded God is doing His work in His way.

Let's pray together. Father, we are blessed to know, we are in the ongoing history of the church. The last chapter has not been written yet. We are living that history. Lord, guard us from reading the book of Acts just as a history book. But Lord, to read it as the record of your work in starting and building your church, learning how you use the message of Christ time after time, place after place, in hard places and easy places, in places where there was receptiveness to the word, in places where there was not. And yet, Lord, the word was never without effectiveness. Use us that way. Lord, may we seize the privilege and opportunity given to us and be reminded wherever we are in the days of this week, we are there representing you first and foremost. We are there with a message of salvation that men, women and young people need to hear. As we come into these weeks where the attention of the world is drawn to Jesus Christ in confusion, in misunderstanding, Lord, may we be ready to talk to them about what is going on. A message they don't understand, but we can tell them about a risen Savior and why He died and what it means that He is alive. May these be days when we are privileged to tell many about the Savior. And Lord, we would pray that by your grace that message will be carried by the Spirit to hearts and we might be privileged to see many come to know the One that we love and serve. We pray in His name, amen.