The Good News about Jesus
Bev’s Mom has recently been concerned about us and has taken up the mission of convincing us that we each ought to have a procedure called a colonoscopy! If you don’t know what that is, I’ll give you a moment to whisper to your neighbor because I am not going to define it for you.
Now, you never expected to hear that word in this pulpit, did you? But there is a point, so hang with me.
Mom has been persistent about it - bringing the subject just about ever time we get together. She is like a lawyer building a case.
She tells us about friends that have gone through the procedure,
presents us with statistics about the prevention of cancer by having the procedure, and
assures us that her own experience was not at all unpleasant.
I am starting to believe that the doctor has promised her a finder’s fee for each person she sends to his office.
Just when I learned to brush off her persistence, I visited my own physician for a check-up recently. He stared at my chart for a few moments. “Hmmmm.” Don’t you love when they do that? They never say, “Well, nothing here to worry about. Go home, eat lots of red meat, chocolate, and french fries and I’ll see you in five years!” Anyway, he said, “So, Jerry, I see you’re past the big 5-0 birthday. It’s about time for a colonoscopy!” Honestly, my first thought was, “Mom got to him, too!”
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For many people, both Believers and those who have not yet put their faith in Christ, the whole idea of talking about the Gospel is a whole lot like my conversations with Mom about my health! It’s just generally unpleasant. But this ought not be true.
Gospel is a word that means ‘good news!’ The act of spreading that good news is called - evangelism. The word means - to bring good news!
The best news in the whole world is that God loves us, that He wants to know us, and that He has a life of purpose that He wants you and me to enjoy! Why should we find talking about this with others a distasteful thing? And we need to ask, why do those that we evangelize all too frequently resent our efforts?
I want to provide some answers for those questions and take you to a Bible text today that I pray will encourage us to talk about knowing Jesus with others as He directed us to do. His final words to us were -“Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." (Mark 16:15, NIV) I want to obey Him, don’t you? I want to be effective in doing what He asks me to do.
PRAYER
As we prepare to talk about Jesus, we must recognize our culture’s high value on
tolerance and inclusion!
To even imply “I’ve found the Truth!” is the social ‘no-no’ of our time. John MacArthur writes -
“Today’s philosophies are open to the notion of God without truth – or to be more accurate - to personal ‘spirituality’ in which everyoen is free to create his own god. Personal gods pose no threat to sinful self-will... and they make no demands on anyone else.” The Truth War, 2007
All around us are people who are otherwise quite intelligent, who will suspend reason so that they can affirm everybody’s spiritual‘truth’ and thus avoid offending anyone! Any sense that there are things that are absolutely right or true – in terms of morality, religious belief, or philosophy – has been largely lost on most Americans under the age of 40.
Stephen Carter, in his book, Culture of Disbelief, observes that
“More and more our culture seems to take the position that believing deeply in the tenets of one’s faith represents a kind of mystical irrationality, something thoughtful American citizens would do better to avoid.” He also observes,
"The message of contemporary culture seems to be that it's perfectly all right to believe that stuff-we have freedom of conscience, people can believe what they like-but you really ought to keep it to yourself." (Culture of Disbelief [New York: HarperCollins, 1993]
We can just give up talking about the Truth of Jesus because of this, or we can take it as a challenge to become more skillful in our presentation of the Good News.
Then, too, we must learn to stay ‘on message!’
Believers frequently set themselves up for criticism and rejection by presenting message up-front! Instead of talking about God’s invitation to know Him and to walk in His will, we begin to attack the social sins of our time and/or push our church dogma and doctrine.
A friend who is struggling to feel that life is worth living is not helped much by a discussion of how a Christian views homosexuality!
A person who is wondering about the meaningless of existence is not aided by a talk centered on the various opinions of God’s plan for the end of the world!
Few will come to faith in Christ as a result of our ability to analyze the age-old controversy about God’s sovereignty and humanity’s free will!
Each one of those issues merits discussion, but they are not ‘the Gospel’ and we must not make our efforts at evangelism about them! It is about Jesus Christ - who He is, what He’s done, and the call to put our faith in Him.
We need to admit that evangelism has been done badly by many! This is especially true when Believers assume the role of the Holy Spirit and attempt to force what only God can create - new birth by the Spirit.
In the name of Christ, Christians are sometimes rude, insensitive, obnoxious, or even down-right silly! We need people to hold up a mirror so we can see what we do and learn to stay where God wants us to be in this wonderful process of introducing others to a life of faith.
I watched a film earlier this year that made me acutely uncomfortable called - “Jesus Camp.” In it, a couple of film-makers recorded efforts at youth evangelism that showed the excesses of very well-intentioned leaders and ministers. Tragically, these excesses have caused many Believers to fall totally silent about their Lord. If we avoid sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, we are disobedient to His final command to those who follow Him. Not only are we disobedient, but we miss the greatest joy in the world – seeing another person come alive to the presence of God! Further, someday when we give account before the Lord, we will answer to Him for our failure to share the good news!
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Scripture text- a story of evangelism. ACTS 8:26-40 Pew Bible page 1705
The story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch is a timeless model for every Believer, in every age, in every situation! If we learn from it, we can overcome our distaste for spreading the good news of the Kingdom, become effective in sharing our faith, and begin to see this work as the adventure with great rewards that God purposes it to be.
(READ)
Before we try to apply the text, let’s try understand what we’ve read.
Philip is called away by an angel of the Lord (verse 26) from his considerable success in Samaria to take a strange wilderness trek. He goes without hesitation. By noting that an angel directs Philip's movements, Luke layers the story over the broader underlying theme of God's active involvement in all the work of His Church!
In the entire book of Acts, which is the story of the first 30 years of the Christian church, Luke shows us that God is coordinating the direction of the Christian mission. Evangelism never just happens by accident. God has a strategy to bring people to know Him! Both the settings and the characters involved in each Kingdom building drama are choreographed by God.
In the case of the story we read, it seems evident that the divine intent is to purposefully extend the reach of the gospel! Philip's success in Samaria was great. God, however, isn't content simply to increase these numbers. Luke points to the divine plan for intentional worldwide reach of the Christ story! Here’s a truth of which we need constant reminder–
Jesus is not MY property, YOUR property, or AMERICAN property. HE is Savior and Lord of the whole World! God loves Israelis, Palestinians, Iraqis, Iranians, Koreans, Chinese, Indian, Nigerian, Ugandan, Argentinian, Chilean, and Fijians– every bit as much as He loves Americans!
Philip starts his journey by traveling south on a desert (better translation would be - “rural”) road. This road was a wilderness stretch only in the sense that it didn't run through any populated towns. This road was clearly not some path in the outback! This road was smoothed enough to allow the Ethiopian to travel by chariot, and, as the story unfolds, the narrative reveals that this road ran alongside abundant water sources.
The Ethiopian eunuch traveling along this road is a fascinating character on a number of different levels. As an Ethiopian, he was from a distant land. He was a resident in what we know today as northern Sudan, in northeast Africa. Among first-century Romans and Greeks, Ethiopians were considered to be literally living on the edge of the world!
For Philip to encounter this individual and witness to him thus represents the Christian mission itself being taken to the ends of the earth. This Ethiopian isn't only distinctive for his deep, dark skin color and his edge-of-the-world residence. He's also described as a eunuch and as a high court official-indeed, the individual in charge of the Ethiopian Queen’s entire treasury.
No detail of the story is unimportant! As the Spirit inspired Luke to write the account, each fact is significant, including the fact that this man was a ‘eunuch.’ The term "eunuch" had a variety of inferences in ancient times. It most commonly described a castrated male. This Ethiopian eunuch's physical condition has significance because it shows the complete newness of the Christian Gospel.
Because of the prohibitions of Deuteronomy 23:1 and Leviticus 21:20, castrated males (eunuchs) were specifically denied access to offerings for the Lord. That mandate grew into the law forbidding eunuchs from becoming full converts to Judaism. His permanent exclusion from Judaism makes his eventual acceptance and full inclusion into the Christian faith all the more wonderful and dramatic!
He had been to Jerusalem to worship. He isn't only able to read, but to do so in multiple languages (he's reading Hebrew Scripture, the Scroll of Isaiah, as he travels along). The mere fact that as a non-Jew he had been able to obtain a copy of Holy Scripture speaks to both the man's wealth, influence, and passion for the faith.
Luke's text speaks of this spiritual Ethiopian reading and traveling in his chariot. We should not be thinking "Ben Hur" here. In order to accommodate the Ethiopian, his driver, and probably one or more other bodyguards, this was probably a four-wheeled cart. Since this cart is moving at a pace leisurely enough to enable a scroll to be held steady and read, and for Philip to be able to catch up with it and engage its occupants in conversation, it's likely that large, plodding oxen pulled them along.
Still, for Philip to run up to the Ethiopian's oxcart involved no small amount of Spirit-inspired confidence. As a wealthy, important man traveling along a country road, no doubt some of those in attendance to the Ethiopian would have been well-armed guards. Anyone who ran up to the cart without first identifying themselves would be risking a defensive assault from the Ethiopian's bodyguards.
Despite this danger, Philip fearlessly approaches. His first words focus attention on understanding. Understanding is a spiritually-given gift, not yet received by all. One may have information about the truth of God without having understanding! In this encounter with the Ethiopian Philip acts as interpreter so that this stranger may be filled with the Spirit’s truth and gain understanding that will lead him to eternal life.
In verse 31 the first of two invitations is given. This first invitation is extended by the Ethiopian who invites Philip to join him and teach him by interpreting the Scripture he's been reading.
The second invitation is extended by Philip later, when he invites the Ethiopian to believe in Jesus Christ, to receive baptism, and so to become a part of the new Christian faith.
The text cited by Luke in verses 32-33 is a rough cut from the Scroll of Isaiah (53:7-8). In verse 32 Luke introduces this Scriptural citation with a phrase meaning "the content or wording of the passage." This passage, even in its rough form, alludes to (though it doesn't name) the suffering servant of Isaiah standing silent before his abusers, suffering injustice and humiliation and finally death at the abusers' hands. The Ethiopian's specific question about the text is whether these words are describing the prophet Isaiah or if the prophet is speaking of someone else.
Philip's response isn't reported in detail by Luke. Whatever course his explanation took, Luke is satisfied describing it as simply the good news about Jesus (READ verse 35). Luke only records that the Isaiah text was the jumping-off place for Philip's witness. Whether Philip proceeded to explain the scroll of Isaiah or shifted over to describe Jesus' life, death, and resurrection as the fulfillment of that Scripture, we can't know. What we can be assured, however, is that part of the good news Philip taught involved the act of baptism as a symbol of repentance and as entrance into new life under the saving power of Jesus.
Philip's witness was so effective that the Ethiopian immediately heads for the first water they encounter, exclaiming excitedly, "Look here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?" (verse 34). A powerful personage used to being in charge, the Ethiopian doesn't hesitate to direct this scene so that he may experience baptism as soon as possible.
Luke's answer to the Ethiopian's question is "Nothing!"
Not the Ethiopian's race,
not his gender-status,
not his government attachments,
not his previous religious life,
not his social status,
not his wealth.
Nothing about this man in anyway hinders his immediate baptism and his immediate entrance into the new community of faith. Through the act of baptism the Ethiopian is invited to participate just as fully in the life of faith as any other disciple.
The Ethiopian's response to Philip being carried away as soon as they come out of the water isn't confusion or despair. Now filled with the Spirit himself, the newly-baptized Christian accepts Philip's miraculous disappearance without concern, and instead focuses only on his joy. He continues on his journey homeward, rejoicing as he goes.
Philip himself is mysteriously relocated to the city of Azotus, some thirty miles away located on the coast. The Spirit is still fully in charge of this missionary journey, having placed Philip once again in a primarily Gentile area. Nonplused by his instantaneous change of venue, Philip continues on his way still proclaiming the good news as he journeys towards Caesarea.
What can we learn about evangelism from such a rich passage?
1. God is the orchestrator of the events of evangelism.
What a radical notion. God is already present, has already picked the time and place for this remarkable meeting.
A. It was an angel of the Lord who directed Philip's steps to that wilderness road.
B. It was the Spirit who pointed out the Ethiopian's chariot and told Philip to join it. Philips' agenda was not calculated or composed. It was spontaneous and Spirit-directed.
It's the a kind of arrogance to think that we ‘take’ God anywhere. God is already active in our world and in our lives, long before any evangelist gets there.
Our work as evangelists is to find out what God is already doing in our world and in people's lives, and to help other people understand that what's going on all around them is God saying “Here I am!”
That's why Philip's first comment to the Ethiopian eunuch makes no judgments. It only asks for insight into the man's own perceptions: does he understand what he is reading?
2. There is no assumed superiority, only a friendly encounter!
Philip didn't present himself as one with all the answers and he didn't presume he knew the needs, wants, desires, of the stranger in the chariot. For all Philip knew at this point, the Spirit could have brought him to the Ethiopian so that the stranger could teach him! What makes Philip a true evangelist is that he waits for the Spirit of God to make the first move, and that he is better at listening than talking.
The Ethiopian, the one to be evangelized, is the first to offer any sort of invitation in today's story. His long quest for spiritual fulfillment, a quest that had brought him to Jerusalem to worship, was a quest that had driven him to purchase and study the Hebrew Scriptures himself. He was seeking information, insight, inspiration. He was, as the Spirit knew, the perfect candidate to respond to Philip's question, "Do you understand?" The Ethiopian's mind is hungry and his heart is ready. He knows he needs "someone to guide me." What he doesn't know is that God is already guiding him.
It's the Ethiopian who extends his hand first, who invites Philip to join him in his chariot, who initiates the direction and content of their meeting. Can there be any doubt that God has set these two up, that God has already been working and waiting in the Ethiopian's life to bring him to this point?
As an evangelist Philip is required to do but two things:
1. go where he is directed and
2. respond to those who respond to him so that he can help them respond in faith to God's
invitations and initiatives.
And that is WHAT GOD EXPECTS of you and me!
David Henderson says
"If you have ten minutes to share the gospel with someone, spend the first nine asking questions and listening. Only then can we speak words on target. When we speak more than we listen, it's like flying a kite in the dark. Our words go out, but we have no idea if they ever get off the ground."
(Culture Shift: Communicating God's Truth to Our Changing World [Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998], 212.)
Evangelism is less about invading others lives than it is about following the Spirit through open doors! It's God's work to ready the heart. It's God's work to set the stage. It's God's work to let the Spirit blow where He may. It's our work to help people hear God saying, “Here I am!” And it is our work to help
people speak to God in reply, “Yes, Lord, I am listening!” Amen
(with great appreciation to Dr. Leonard Sweet for seminal thoughts on this passage!)
Jerry D. Scott