Continuing Christ’s Mission to All Mankind
Read: Acts.8:25-40
Introduction:
Becoz A new year of activities is about to begin here at NPEBC
- Sunday School Ministry
- Know-Your-Bible Study
- Ladies Evening Study
- Evangelism Ministry of the Church
It will be helpful to remind ourselves of why, we as a church are here.
It is one of the questions I wrestled with while on Holidays?
- We are not here to Create a Name for Ourselves/Ministry…
- We are not here to Build a Gigantic Architectural Structure to be marvelled at by all who drive by and see it… (nice, but no!)
- We are not here to operate a Comfortable-Country-Club for wealthy upper-middle-class Christians to enjoy….
- We are not here to primarily provide a social relief service…
So, Why or What are we, by H. Spirit’s enabling, working to achieve?
What is the Purpose-Mission our Church: NPEBC? (& every church)
- Well, Bk-Acts gives us a great Description of our Mission, and…
- The story of the Ethiopian Eunuch’s Conversion is a great Example of our Mission being worked out.
Our Mission is to Glorify God thru Ministry & Practice of His Word
- We Minister & Practice His Word, in Worship, which Glorifies God and Builds-Up the Saints, the Believers
- We Minister & Practice His Word in Witness, which Glorifies God and Makes Disciples from all Nations and Individuals
- Now here in Acts 8, it is Witness that’s displayed.
First: (Briefly) Remember: the Source of Our Mission is Christ
- Christ set the example for our Church’s Mission by speaking:
- To Jews & Samaritans, even a Canaanite woman
- He spoke in Synagogues and the Temple itself
- He spoke in homes of friends and disciples
- He spoke outside on the beach,
- on Mountaintops, during the day and late at night,
- He spoke to men, women, old & young
- He spoke to those who’re physically whole, and also
- to Lepers, Lame, Blind, Deaf & Mute, demon-possessed
- He spoke to the rich and powerful, and
- to the poor and marginalised
- Christ spoke and dealt with them all, on the basis of our greatest need: Forgiveness of sin & Reconciliation to God
- His ministry set the example for all His followers
- Philip, in his ministry followed Christ’s example
- We’re called to follow His example, bearing witness for Christ
To Live out our Mission, is to follow Christ’s example
Christ also Gave us His Great Commission – U know these well
- Matthew 28:18–20, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
- And, Acts 1:8 “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.”
- to Make disciples & teach them: Minister the Word
- to be His Witnesses is, again, Ministry of the Word
- So, we have an example and a mission, But Who is it to?
Two: (Briefly) Remember the Scope of Our Mission
- Those two texts I just read, give us our scope:
- All nations, from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth
The Scope of our Mission is both Large Groups & Isolated individuals
- Bk-Acts displays that mission being worked out….
- 2-8 – Jerusalem, Judea then Samaria rec’v the Witness
- 10 – Gentile Rome is introduced to the gospel as Cornelius and friends rec’v witness & are converted en-masse, in his home
- 16, – Paul & Silas are called over to Macedonia, and the gospel spreads into Europe
- As you read Acts you see large groups converted to Christ
- And, the Scope of Our Mission is also Individuals
- Here, in 8, – a lone Ethiopian Hears gospel, he’s Converted, Baptis’d & w/ Rejoicing he takes: Gospel -> Ethiopia, to Africa.
- 9, – a Christ-Hating, Church-Persecuting, Pharisee, Saul is converted by Christ’s direct Intervention. (see next week)
- 16, – Lydia’s heart is opened by the Lord to receive Gospel
- And so on, with others through-out the book.
- Whole groups of peoples, & Isolated Individuals Repenting of Sin, Believing-whole-heartedly the Gospel were being Converted fr. sinners to saints
- The scope of our mission is lg groups, & isolated individuals
The Scope of Our Mission is Diverse Cultures & Social Setting
- 27, The Ethiopian: Wealthy, Powerful, High-ranking Diplomat
- 9, Saul was an Educated, Powerful, Roman-Jew-Pharisee
- Acts 16, Lydia was a wealthy business-woman
- Many early Christians: Slaves, Soldiers, Fishers, Farmers etc.
- Within NT, Jew, Samaritan, African, Greek, Roman & European
- There was, and is, no limitation or restriction to whom the gospel must be made known.
- There is no limitation physically, socially, culturally to anyone Receiving Christ: Lord & Saviour & Obediently Following him,
One Interesting Theme in Bk. Acts is that: Access to God is no longer thru Jerusalem-Judaism nor is it Temple-centred
- For 1,000+ yrs, access to God req. a person to go to Jerusalem, to offer sacrifices acc. to Law, thru Israel’s priesthood.
- But now, All Men & Women can have access: to God, thru Christ, finding Grace, Forgiveness & Peace w/ God, o/s Judaism
- 27-27, Ethiopian, having gone to Jerusalem to worship, came away no closer to God, than when he had arrived….
- But, By God’s Providence he brought a scroll of Isaiah w/ him.
- And by God’s Marvellous Grace, he heard: Gospel on his way thru a desert place, explained to him by Philip, Hellenistic Jew
- He Found Christ & Forgiveness, and went on his way rejoicing
So, The Scope of Our Mission is All Mankind, Lg. Groups & Individuals,
- With Diverse Cultural & Social settings.
- All of mankind, are Universally called, by God, thru the Gospel
- to Repent of sin,
- to Believe whole-heartedly in God for Salvation &
- to live the New life of Obedience to Christ.
- And, It is our Mission to take that message to them
- It may be to your neighbour, your co-worker, your family…
- But under whose leadership & direction do we take it?
Three: The Command of Our Mission is God’s Holy Spirit
- Remember: Acts.6:5, the church “…chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and 5 others”
- The implication is that Stephen, & Philip & the 5 others were all men filled w/ H. Spirit, who lead-directed them
- in their lives as individuals and…
- in their ministry as deacons, preachers & evangelists
- The Spirit of God was at work in their lives
- They were submitted to His leading, controlling of their lives
- I am convinced that Saul’s persecution (8:3) was the H. Spirit’s means of scattering & leading the Disciples away from Jerusalem and out into Samaria and many other places to preach the Gospel.
- God brings/allows persecution to rise for many reasons, here it’s plain to see, to spread gospel witness out further
- Now, vs.26 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 Philip goes…. 80-100kms 4-5 days walking trip
- Notice also vs.29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”
- And Philip runs over to the chariot….
- From those phrases: “Angel of the Lord” and “the Spirit” One thing is clear: the Leadership & direction for Philip’s ministry came fr. God, Himself – which would indicate the Spirit of God
- in both vss, those are commands that are given to Philip
- God’s Spirit is directing Philip’s ministry to Ethiopian, just as…
- God’s Spirit led Jesus, into wilderness to be tempted in Luke 4,
- …and throughout his earthly ministry, and just as…
- God’s Spirit led Peter in his leadership of the early church
- God’s Spirit separated Saul/Paul & Barnabas Acts 13:2 to the work He had called them to
- Philip, fr. his early life as a believer, serving as a deacon, is familiar w/ the Holy Spirit in leading & directing his life/minist
- The Spirit “spoke” to Philip.
- Without any clarification I simply take that as: it was audible.
And God’s Spirit still speaks to us today primarily thru His Insp. Word
- We have the completed Word of God before us inspired by Spirit, thru many writers, (3:16, 2Pet.1:21)
- Everything we need to know to live this life of faith, obedience, witness & ministry can be found within its pages
- And, I will also add that, in this Christian life, the Spirit of God will lead us in specific things outside the Scope of Scripture.
- What could possibly be outside the scope of Scripture?
- Well, there are Current Names, Events, & Situations about which the Spirit leads us.
- He lays things on our heart, He impresses things on our minds
Speaking in terms of my own life-ministry…
- The Spirit of God has/will lay on my mind names of men-women, to call, to visit or, far more importantly, to pray for…
- He leads me, in this, by bringing their names to mind…
- The Spirit leads in prayer by laying names, circumstances, situations on my heart, in my thoughts, such that I know, these should be mentioned and brought to the Lord in Prayer…
- The Spirit of God leads me, as I seek God’s mind-will in choosing sermon series, books to preach thru, etc.
- I strive to Seek for God’s leading & to Trust Him for it, and He leads by laying these things on my mind, bringing them to my attention, thru prayer, thru bible reading, even thru the unsolicited comments of others.
- And, I’m nobody special, what I’m describing is, or it should be, nothing out of the ordinary for all Christians, in all walks of life, whatever their ministry, service and vocation may be.
But let’s not drift too far from the main point here:
- The Mission of our Church is to bring the gospel to all nations, groups and isolated individuals, under the leadership & direction of the Holy Spirit.
- Therefore, the obvious application is for all of us, to go out & witness to anybody & everybody we meet, and…
- For me to put a Guilt Burden on all of us to do that, right?….No.
- Shouldn’t we have a desire to tell everybody about Christ – Yes.
- Shouldn’t we go out and witness to everybody we meet? – No.
Does the Spirit of God at times Restrain us – Yes, He does.
- If you were to look at 16:6, Paul & Silas were forbidden by the H. Spirit to speak the Word in Asia…
- again, in 7, the Spirit would not allow them to go to Bithynia.
- Is there something wrong w/ Asia or Bithynia, that Paul-Silas shouldn’t go there? No,
- But 4 His purposes: Spirit said NO to their desire to go there
- Then, in 16:9, The Spirit called Paul & Silas, thru a vision of a Macedonian man, to help the Macedonians.
- There’re times when we are called/led to speak and times: not.
- As one commentator & scholar put it, perhaps we would know more joy & success in the work of our mission, if we strove neither to lag behind Spirit’s leading, nor to go ahead of it, but rather to stay in stepo with the Spirit’s leading-directing
- The Point is: The Mission of the Church is under the Command of the Spirit of God, to bring the message of Gospel to all nations, for the Glory of Christ’s name among those peoples
Christ is continuing His work, thru us, directed by His H. Spirit,
Now, This text presented a challenge that to me, so I’ll pass it on 2 U
- How much am I – are we – submitted to the Spirit’s leading?
- How diligently are we searching His scriptures for answers to the concerns & directions of our lives & our ministry?
- How often does the Lord lay on our hearts the burden to speak… or to be silent, and yet we strive ahead, so sure that we know better,
- Or we lag behind, becoz fear has invaded-intruded
- How often do we look at what God is calling us to do…
- and then balk and refuse becoz the difficulties we see, seem to us, to be are insurmountable?
- Is not our God able to overcome the obstacles that He set in place, even as He called us to act?
- Think of the fugitive Moses, called and led to go & lead the slave nation out from Egypt….
- Think of Gideon, called & led to go w/ 300 ag. a massive army…
- Think of 12 Disciples-Apostles: late teens-early 20’s,
- called & filled with the H. Spirit,
- sent out to continue the work Christ began,
- In each of those cases, God was the One doing the work, and…
- God’s Holy Spirit was leading the Work
Brothers and sisters,
- Are we truly living under the influence of the Holy Spirit
- Philip conducted His ministry under the leading, directing of the Holy Spirit, but it didn’t begin there…
- He had shown by his life as a member of the church in Jerusalem that He was full of the Spirit, that He was under the influence of the Holy Spirit,
- He was recognised by the church as a deacon to serve in the church and…
- He was used by God and led by God, becoz his life was in submission to the Holy Spirit’s Leading…
- Are we? Am I? living in submission to the Holy Spirit
So, What is required of us that we be led by the Spirit
- Two things in the this text we can see:
- Notice, there is not a moments hesitation by Philip to do what the Spirit had called him to do – That’s
- Notice also where we left Philip at the end of 8:13, He was busy preaching and doing great signs, wonder & miracles, before great crowds in Samaria – possibly 1,000’s people.
- Surely, the work was too great to suddenly stop, to walk some 80-100 kms S. to meet one single man & speak of Christ to him.
- Surely, there was somebody else, the Spirit of God could send
- But, no, Philip immediately left his work there, and went where he was told. That displays a tremendous humility before God.
- Philip understood that the work was not his, he was merely a sharpened tool to be used by the Master to accomplish: work.
Bros and Sis, what hinders us fr being used by God to do God’s work:
- Selfish Pride, Not God’s Will, but my own… Disobedience
- If we’re to know the leading of the Holy Spirit….
- If we’re to do God’s work, under the Spirit’s direction, there must be: Humility before God, Obedience to God
Fourthly The Content of Our Mission – Christ Proclaimed fr. Scripture
- Notice how the story unfolds, Philip is sent – he goes
- Philip is commanded to join the Chariot – he runs up and engages the Ethiopian in conversation
- The Ethiopian is already reading the text of Isaiah 53
- Ethiopian is returning fr. Jerus, where he’d gone to worship.
- from this, we can assume that he is either born a Jew or a convert to Judaism, yet, due to his emasculation as a Eunuch, his freedom to approach the Temple, severely Ltd.
- And here we see Philip’s role in the story being an Imitation of Christ’s Example, set on the road to Emmaus. (Luke.24)
- The two on rd. to Emmaus, are joined by a mysterious stranger
- He (Christ, Himself) asks questions, just as Philip does
- He (Christ) gently rebukes the two, and then, in Luke 24:27 beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, (Jesus) interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
- The very same thing that Philip does here, Acts 8:35, he opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.
- Just like Peter on Pentecost Morning, He began w/ Scriptures, Joel, Ch.2, and Psalm 16, and proclaimed Christ to them
- Just like Stephen, before Sanhedrin, who began with a great overview of OT scriptures and proclaimed Christ to them
- So Philip told him the good news of Christ.
- He told him, lit: he euengelisato –
- He proclaimed to Him the Good news about Jesus Christ
- the text of Isaiah 53:7, He proclaimed the Good News of the Lamb of God, who was taken & brutally slaughtered as the substitute. sacrifice for his sin, for Philip’s sin & for our sin.
- Perhaps Philip had heard the story of John the Baptist, proclaiming with a loud voice about Jesus: Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. (John.1:29)
- Certainly, as he talked, the Spirit of God gave Philip the words to say, to expound this very text to the Ethiopian.
- Christ is the Lamb of God – the sacrificial Lamb to die as the sin offering for His people’s sin – but that interpretation was unheard of in the days-time of 1st. cent. Judasim
- The Jews were expecting a Messiah who would deliver them from all their external problems…. Not much has changed
- just like the world in which we live, deliver us from external problems
- The Jews & Judaism were eager for the Messiah to come to conquer & overthrow the Romans and re-establish the superiority of Israel as a nation
- To consider a suffering Messiah, Dying for his people was unheard of!
Bros & Sis, the Content of our Mission is Christ & Him Crucified
- Paul says it best in 1 Cor.2:1–5 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
- The church makes a terrible, tragic & sinful mistake when it goes to the world with Anything but Christ & Him Crucified.
- The Church makes a sinful mistake when we go seeking primarily to alleviate the world’s external problems.
- The greatest need to which Jesus addressed his ministry was man’s universal need
- to be reconciled to God,
- to be forgiven of sin,
- to be set free from sin to serve the living God
- The greatest need all mankind has, above all else, is that God is Good, and we are Not.
- Mark1:14-15, Christ Repent, Believe Gospel, Follow me,
- 2, Peter preach. Repent, Believe Gospel, Follow Christ
- Paul preached Christ Crucified: repent & believe
- Philip preached Christ as the Lamb of God, so repent & believe
- We must, we dare not, preach any other gospel, for they all fade to dust compared w/ the Gospel of Christ & Him crucified
- The Holy Spirit did not see it necessary to inspire Luke to record, word for word, the content of Philip’s message,
- simply that He proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Lastly: The Result of our Mission.
- Clearly the Ethiopian believed the message, he was converted
- Clearly the Ethiopian felt his heart warmed,
- he felt the testimony of the Spirit of God within him, bearing witness with his own spirit: he was a child of God (Rom.8:16)
- The Ethiopian, remembered the baptismal rite that the Jews & Judaism practiced as one was converted to Judaism
- And, perhaps Philip had presented that to him in his discussion
- Whatever the case, now he asks, vs.36
- “what prevents me from being baptised?”
- Under the Judaism with which he was acquainted, his emasculation would have prevented him, limited him
- But now, in Christ, He is a new creature, the old has gone, the new has come, his body will one day be renewed and perfected.
- Nothing hinders him, so long as he believes with all his heart
- And so, In Obedience to God, he is Baptised….
- And, with rejoicing, He goes on his way home
Philip had Continued Christ’s Mission by going,
- under the Spirit’s leading,
- to both large groups, and isolated individuals
- to Diverse cultures and social settings
- He went with the simple message of the Gospel:
- Christ Crucified as the Lamb of God slain for us
But what about us?
- We have this great mission from Christ, our Saviour Himself
- Christ has suffered and died to set us free from sin, to call us to repentance, faith and New Life in Himself
- Christ has set the example for how our New Life is to be lived
- Christ has filled us with His Spirit,
- to lead us, to empower us, to equip and enable us
- to Live this Life, Continuing Christ’s Mission to take the Gospel to all nations
- Christ has given us His Word to equip us with everything we need to fulfil that Mission
- Christ leads us every day, by His Spirit, to those who need to hear, at that moment, the message of Christ & Him Crucified.
- Are we Humbly Listening to His Leading?
- Are we being Obedient to His Calling?
- Are we Continuing Christ’s Gospel Mission?
