AM Acts 8 Philip the Evangelist

[0:00] Now, we'll turn to that passage, something of this, what I've called Philip Evangelist, but we'll start in chapter 8 of Acts, although he appears elsewhere and we'll come to that shortly, but for the moment we'll just focus, read in Acts chapter 8.

[0:19] And we'll just read from the beginning, this is just after the sad stoning of Stephen, as you maybe see in your own Bibles there, headed up there, and it says after that, And Saul approved of his execution, and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen, and made great lamentations over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house. He dragged off men and women, and committed them to prison. Now, those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

[1:22] Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and proclaimed to them the Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him, and saw the signs that he did. For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them.

[1:47] Many who went, who were paralyzed, or lame, were healed. So there was much joy in the city. But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city, and amazed the people of Samaria. Saying that he himself was somebody great. They all paid attention to him. For at least to the greatest saying, this man is the power of God, that he's called great. And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. But when they believed Philip, as he preached good news about the kingdom of God, in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed. And after being baptized, he continued with, he committed with Philip. And seeing signs and wonders performed, he was amazed.

[2:57] Now the next paragraph is about Simon mainly. It's an interesting paragraph. It's basically telling you the story of Peter and John coming down to help these new converts in Samaria.

[3:11] And there are some interesting topics in that paragraph, which we're not going to go into this morning. But at the end of the day, Simon was a bit confused after he believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he saw the apostles, Peter and John, laying hands on other people.

[3:36] And they received the Holy Spirit. And he wanted to buy that gift. And so he was rebuked and told to repent. So there's a wee interesting episode in that paragraph. You can look at it afterwards.

[3:48] But we're focusing on Philip this now. But we'll continue from verse 26. And if you don't mind, I'm going to come down to more light. Because I've got this problem. I was talking to somebody earlier that said, when you get older, you get problems. I've got cataracts. So I need a bit light to read. Now, an angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise and go towards the south of the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He'd come to Jerusalem to worship. And was returning seated in his chariot. And he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the spirit said to Philip, go over and join his chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, do you understand what you're reading?

[4:56] And he said, how can I, unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now, the passage of the scriptures he was reading was this. Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter.

[5:09] And like a lamb before its shearers is silent. So he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth. And the eunuch said to Philip, about whom I ask you, does the prophet say this about himself?

[5:32] Or about someone else? And Philip opened his mouth. And beginning with the scriptures, he told them the good news about Jesus. And they were going along the road. And they came to some water. And the eunuch said, see here is water. What prevents me from being baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stop.

[5:54] And they both went down into the water. Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized them. And when 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 in Asotis. And as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. May God add his blessing to us reading from his own word. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for your word to us, that we can turn to this inspired word of God that's been preserved down through the years. And we thank you, Lord, that we can read about this evangelist called Philip. And we pray, Lord, as we study your word together. You would help us to, as we're thinking, see fresh things from it. So, Lord, we ask your blessing upon us as we meditate upon God's word. We thank you, Lord, that we can come to you in prayer.

[7:01] And as we come to you in prayer, we also pray for our nation at this time. We continue to pray, both for the governments here in Edinburgh, and also in Westminster. And that you would always be with those who profess your name within these governments, and uphold them. And we know some of them. And we ask you, Lord, that you would keep them in your path, and help them to know when it's wise to speak. And we pray, Lord, for our continued blessing, then.

[7:38] upon them. But I ask that you would guide them into your way, and not their own way. Help them to direct the nation according to your word, and not according to vain ideas. The principles that we all know are true to the scriptures. It seems as though they've been left aside. We think of all the disturbances at this time in different parts of the world, within Israel and Palestine, and in the Ukraine, and other parts. And I ask, Lord, that again, that you would bring peace about in these nations. And we ask humbly that you would intervene and protect those who are innocent, especially civilians. Lord, we pray, Lord, that not only for other parts of the world, we pray for our own nation here. We pray for, not only for the nation, but for other churches that we know of. We notice,

[8:44] Lord, that today we are asked to pray for air and kill winning. We pray for them. And I ask, Lord, that you would be with them in their long vacancy. That soon you would be getting along beside them and encourage them to find someone who would come and minister to them in their need. So bless them. And also, recently we've been asked to pray for North U.S. as well. So, Lord, we bring them before you.

[9:18] And we thank you, Lord, for other news. We know of a congregation called Harrington. And we thank you, Lord, that they have now been permitted to become a fully sanctioned church. So be with Ali there and others who are ministering your name in that part of your vineyard. Encourage them, Lord, in this new venture that has taken place. And we thank you for this development. And we ask that you would be with them. So, Lord, we pray, Lord, for these different things. We pray for this congregation as they also seek your wisdom for a pastor to come over them in your own time, that provision would be made for that. But in the meantime, as we were thinking earlier, of those who come week by week to preach your word here. So, Lord, be with us as we meditate upon your word now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

[10:18] Amen. Now, I'm going to turn to one or two passages in Acts, mainly, about this. We can call him Philip the Evangelist because the scriptures call him Philip the Evangelist. So, we've got quite good authority calling him Philip the Evangelist. And the first mention of Philip the Evangelist that you'll find in Acts chapter 6. This is a chapter quite well known, I think, where there was a bit of difficulty in the growing. Ironically, the church was expanding and they were growing and God was blessing the church at that time. In fact, if you go back to Acts 2 verse 47, it says, The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. So, there was a big growth in the church at that time due to God's blessing, especially Pentecost that just happened before that. We read about this growth in the church and it's developing. We touched a bit upon that at the beginning of chapter 8 where it talked about the persecution of the church. And ironically, that also added to the growth of the church as we'll see. So, the church was growing and God was blessing it. And these well known verses in chapter 6 of Acts tell us about a problem within the congregation. And the problem was that there seems to be so much happening that some widows were being neglected. There were two groups within the church were being neglected. There were two groups within the church. There was a Greek-speaking part of the church, the Hellenists, and there was an Aramaic-speaking part of the church, the Hebrews. And this kind of caused a bit of administration problems. Some of the widows were being neglected due to the leaders being focused or wanting to be focused on preaching and prayer. And they saw that this was a kind of distraction from what was happening at that time. And it wasn't right, they said, that those who were called by God to be preachers of God's Word and that they would be focusing mainly on preaching and prayer. And not to be kind of distracted by diacono affairs. Not that they weren't interested in that.

[13:08] But the thing was that they wanted to focus on God's Word and prayer and commit their time to that. And I've always thought that that's a good precedent to follow in the churches.

[13:22] I do feel that today I do feel very sorry for ministers. Because there seems to be a lot of administration falling on their plate. And I don't often give advice to the Board of Ministry.

[13:39] But I see that they're meeting soon. And my advice would be to make sure that ministers who are called by God follow this, what Acts 6 is telling, that they would be committed to prayer and preaching. And learn to delegate other duties. And this is what happened in Acts 6.

[14:04] It seems as though there was a kind of congregational business meeting to deal with this problem. We all sometimes think about business meetings and the advantage of having business meetings.

[14:15] And maybe think they're a bit of a waste of time. But this business meeting dealt with the problem that these widows were being neglected. So what they did so that ministers, those called by God, could focus on prayer and preaching was they decided to elect seven, I like to call them deacons.

[14:38] They did the work of deacons. But officially they weren't, as we would call deacons, there were people who were specifically called to deal with this deaconal problem. And that verb was used throughout Acts 6 at the beginning. But interestingly, that same verb was used for preaching and prayer.

[15:03] They were servants of God in their preaching and prayer. And these seven were servants of God by helping with this problem of administration amongst the widows that we've dealt with.

[15:21] And the twelve would focus on prayer. And right through Acts, you'll notice the emphasis on prayer.

[15:32] For example, Acts 1.14. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together the woman and Mary, the mother of Jesus and his brothers. How important it is to let folk have time to devote, especially those who are called to ministry so that they can devote their time to prayer.

[15:55] And that's what these apostles, the twelve, the apostles wanted to be sure of.

[16:06] That they had this time set aside for prayer and for preaching God's word. When you're preparing sermons, I'm sure ministers find this, they've got sometimes two sermons a week and if not a prayer meeting to do, but then they get calls for somebody's ill.

[16:27] Or they get called to a funeral. Or, you know, there's the usual joke of ministers only work one day a week. Well, I don't think that's quite true. So, they wanted to use their time that God gave them for focusing on word and prayer.

[16:45] And this was solved by having this congregational meeting, having this meeting, business meeting that we had together. And there was this difference within the congregation, within this situation, there was differences of how to deal with this problem.

[17:06] The interesting thing is that they came to a united conclusion for the glory of God. They divided up the work. They knew that these people were gifted in one way and the ministers were gifted in preaching and prayer.

[17:24] And so, they came to a conclusion that this teamwork within a congregation is so important. In other words, the delegation of gifts. And it's taken a long time for some of us to know what our gifts were or are.

[17:40] And sometimes we're kind of led in one direction. Or we want to go in one direction and God leads us in another direction. Well, personally, I've discovered down through the years that perhaps more than preaching, my gift is more than administration.

[18:03] All my life, I've been involved in administration. Administrating pension projects, administrating bookshops, administrating development projects, administrating bookshops, presbyteries, you name it.

[18:19] And so, I've come to the conclusion that perhaps I've come into the second category here. And I hope that by realising the gifts that God has given us, this doesn't make us jealous or anything of those who have other gifts, but it makes us realise that God can use us in these different aspects, freeing up others in the congregation or others to, with God, the gifts that God has given them for their work.

[18:48] Teamwork here was so important within the church and they were able to elect these seven people or, as I call them, deacons to do this work.

[19:00] It's interesting that five of these deacons, if I can don't mind me calling them deacons, five of them are never mentioned ever again in Scripture. They're only here. In other words, they remained in the background.

[19:14] There's no other mention of what they've been. They just go on with their job. And that's an interesting aspect. The only two that are focused on, as we saw, was one was Simon, who we saw was stoned.

[19:27] Another is Philip, who we're going to discuss now. So, this is Philip the Evangelist, and this is how he was first appeared in the situation in Acts chapter 6, to help alleviate this difficulty within this situation that God called these men to be the, more or less, administrators so that this problem of the widow's meals would be solved.

[19:59] But we can understand a bit from these verses also what was required of these men. And when they search for these particular seven people, we read about what they needed to have.

[20:18] In verse 3, Brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.

[20:33] So, we understand from that one verse the kind of, all seven had these gifts, but we're focusing on Philip. So, he had a good reputation. He was full of the Holy Spirit, because that's one of the qualities, to be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, all of them.

[20:55] But Philip, we can understand from that verse, was one person who had a good reputation amongst others. He was a person who was full of the Holy Spirit. Now, one thing that we have to point out is that when a person is converted, that person is given God's Holy Spirit in their life, a once and all gift that will never be taken away from that person.

[21:22] The Spirit will be with you and in you. That's the gift of the Holy Spirit. And we can't come to know Christ without having the Holy Spirit in us.

[21:33] So, don't let anybody ever tell you that you need the Spirit in your life, because if you're a Christian, the Holy Spirit is residing in your life. So, we'll learn from that from the Scriptures, Galatians 3.14.

[21:48] It says, Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he has blessed to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.

[22:01] And there's other verses you could turn to, but the Holy, and especially, you know, John 14, John 16, these are passages that all teach this important doctrine, this important teaching that the Holy Spirit is in our lives.

[22:17] So, we don't need to be concerned about that aspect, but what this verse says is that we're to be full of the Holy Spirit. And that's kind of something more worth pondering on, to be full of the Holy Spirit.

[22:35] And that we have the fruit of the Holy Spirit. What do you think that means, to be full of the Holy Spirit? I found one definition, it was actually in the MacArthur Bible commentary.

[22:48] And it says, Being filled with the Spirit is living in the conscious presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, letting his mind through the Word dominate everything that is thought and done.

[23:01] the fruit. And there's a passage, quite a run-on passage, in Ephesians, where it compares, but one of the verses in Ephesians 5, 18, it says, Be filled with the Spirit.

[23:14] And if you look at the way that that's written, it says, Be continually filled, would be a good translation. Go on being filled with the Holy Spirit.

[23:27] Don't be filled with anything else. Do not be drunk with wine, it says. Don't be filled with anything else, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit.

[23:37] So, it's trying to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit in a life. To be filled with the Holy Spirit. I think that has helped.

[23:48] The more we focus on God's Word, the more we focus on prayer, I think the more we'll be full of the Holy Spirit. The more time we set aside for God in devotion, it'll be helpful, I think, to be full of the Holy Spirit.

[24:08] And this fulfilling of the Holy Spirit, we find in different passages, I think it's here as well, when they appointed the seven, can I call them deacons?

[24:26] When they appointed the seven men and prayed over, they laid their hands on them. Well, something about that, laying their hands on them, was to set them aside that's used elsewhere in Scripture.

[24:38] This laying of hands was a special blessing upon these seven people. Now, some of you know, especially if you've looked at the notice sheet, it says, the Reverend Charles Douglas.

[24:54] Well, that's true. I was licensed back in 1990, but the congregation I served wasn't able to ordain me and it was never ordained. So I've never had this experience of having laid on hands as a minister.

[25:09] But I have had the experience of being set apart and laid my hands upon. And this has happened when I was 14 years old.

[25:20] As some of you know, it was brought up in the Episcopal Church. And I still remember the bishop. I lay my hands on you, Charles Arthur Gordon, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

[25:32] Now, that makes me think now. I mean, it didn't mean much then, but I wonder if something of that blessing was to come in fruition when I came to know Christ.

[25:47] So that's an interesting thought from my own personal experience. But then, later on, as Paul's talking to Timothy, what does he say? Do not neglect your gift that was given to you through the prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

[26:04] And then, later on, he says to Timothy, fan into flames the spiritual gift that God gave you when I laid hands upon you. So those who have been laid their hands upon are encouraged to fan into flame their spiritual gifts.

[26:19] They're encouraged to not neglect that gift that has been given to them. So again, these are challenges thinking way back, well, in person.

[26:30] I think it was a gift. It's an interesting topic. But I think it was a gift when I personally was laid hands.

[26:42] Even though I was 14 years old, now, I think, I've got to neglect that gift. It was done in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So, it's just something that made me think about this laying hands on these seven people that were set apart.

[27:02] And I think it helped them be even fuller of the Holy Spirit, if that was possible, already full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom and repute. that meant these people had a good reputation before other people.

[27:18] So, Philip was like that. People recognised him as a person that they could, of good character.

[27:29] They knew that this Philip was full of the Holy Spirit. They knew he was full of wisdom. So, that was the first thing we find about Philip. He was full of the Holy Spirit.

[27:41] And then, as we read in chapter 8, verse 4, we read about this Philip. We jumped to that chapter we read together in Acts chapter 8, verse 4.

[27:56] And this is what happened after the persecution of the, after the stoning of Saul, they didn't read that, the stoning of Stephen, rather.

[28:08] Saul was there and then Stephen was killed. And now, due to this persecution, it says, they were scattered abroad. And it says that Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.

[28:26] So, what happened was that this persecution was trying to stamp out God's work. they thought, let's persecute them. But what turned out to be a negative thing turned out to be a positive thing because it meant the gospel.

[28:43] They were proclaiming to other parts of the area. And here was Philip. He was called to go down to Samaria and he proclaimed to them the Christ.

[28:58] And that proclamation was Christ-centered preaching. Going back to my own experience, something I'll never forget, some names you'll, some of you might know, one name was Clement Graham who taught us, we had a preaching class and he was part of that I think.

[29:23] Still, we had this wonderful experience not of preaching before other students. And after we preached the question was always asked, was Christ preached?

[29:38] That was always the question that I associate with Clement Graham, the way Clement Graham, was Christ preached? And I always say that to preachers, even the preaching from the Old Testament, I thought, ah, well done, you preached Christ.

[29:54] So, Simon's preaching was Christ centered. And it's numulated as you come across his preaching in various verses, it mentions he was preaching Christ to them.

[30:09] And he was preaching the good news, it says, he was preaching the good news and this is why I brought in this illustration earlier about the good news.

[30:20] And that's what we're told here that Philip was preaching the good news, it says, first of all, as he went out preaching, he was preaching the good news of Jesus Christ amongst those people.

[30:40] And as he was preaching this good news, people were hearing him and were being converted. See, Philip was down at Semaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.

[30:55] The crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and the signs he did. So, not only was he preaching the good news, but he was also heralding the gospel, he was proclaiming the gospel, he proclaimed to them the Christ.

[31:18] So, he had two ways of preaching, I think, Philip. He portrayed the good news of the gospel, but he also heralded the gospel, he preached the gospel. So, that's a kind of different aspect to preaching.

[31:33] One is preaching the good news, spreading the good news of Jesus as Christ. that word that's used here about, he heralded the gospel as I prefer to translate it, is the word used like the old town criers who used to go out and shout at the top of their voices about any news that came into the city.

[31:59] And it's that kind of, we know that Philip was caught up with this public preaching of God's word, proclaiming it, heralding it, so that it was an authoritative preaching in Samaria to the crowds around him.

[32:15] I always remember back in the day, in the 70s, there was always an announcement in Leith Free Church at the end of the service, was that, and they'll be preaching at the mound afterwards, and that the mound was where people would go back then, and herald the gospel out there, and tell them the good news of Jesus Christ.

[32:43] And this all was happening in Samaria, and that seems to help us focus on Samaria, and brings us back to John chapter 4, doesn't it, in Samaria, where the woman of the well was converted.

[33:02] As I said earlier, his preaching was Christ centered. I've noted down three verses, verse 5, verse 12, and verse 35, all emphasizing that Philip was preaching.

[33:15] And what happened when Philip was preaching, it says here, he paid attention to what Philip was saying, because God was with him, because God was using him, because he was full of the Holy Spirit.

[33:30] people were actually paying attention to what this man was saying. God was using Philip in this way, because he had prepared Philip with his gifts.

[33:43] He had prepared Philip because he was of good reputation. He was full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. And therefore, people paid attention to Philip, not because of what he was saying, but because God was using Philip.

[34:00] And it's the same word that's used of Lydia. Remember, she paid attention to what Jesus was saying. And that's the kind of attention these people are paying to God's word.

[34:16] And it's an interesting, one thing is listening to what is being said. Another thing is to paying attention. Something was happening as Philip was preaching, their ears were being opened to the gospel that he was preaching, their ears were being opened to the good news.

[34:37] They were beginning to not only listen, but paying attention. And that paying attention resulted in them wanting to know Christ for themselves. It resulted in them wanting to be baptized and publicly profess Jesus for themselves.

[34:55] And something else that probably helped Philip in his preaching was the signs he was performing as well as preaching. We're told that he was performing these signs as well.

[35:07] And so that added an extra dimension to Philip's presence. It reminded me of being careful of watching, following people just because of what they're just doing.

[35:22] Jesus for example, when he was preaching with all these signs in John chapter 6, he just performed the feeding of 5,000.

[35:34] And people were just following for the signs, not for what Jesus was proclaiming. And Jesus rebuked them and he said to them, to his own disciples, as he was rebuking them, they started to go away.

[35:51] Are you going to go away as well? He said to the disciples. Who shall we go to? You have the words of eternal life. And so what I think Simon was doing in preaching in this way, as they're paying attention, it says to what Peter said, they all paid attention in verse 10, it is there.

[36:12] They all paid attention. was that he was, it reminds me of emphasizing as he was preaching the importance of not, the importance of the long haul, shall we say, the importance of knowing that devoting your life to Christ isn't just a one-off thing, it's for life.

[36:40] And that's what he was calling to, and that's what Jesus was rebuking others for in John 6. They were just falling for the signs, and I think here Philip, by the way he was preaching, was drawing to the tension that if they were going to follow Christ, then it's the cost of discipleship that's important.

[37:03] And I take it from the context here, he was emphasizing something of the cost of discipleship, they were paying attention to that, and they wanted to be baptized. And we're told in verse 8, I think I've noted down, that when he was preaching like this, and when they listened, I'm not sure if it was in verse 8 or not, so yeah, verse 8, so there was much joy in the city when Philip was preaching in Samaria.

[37:33] and it's such a challenge to speak about our face to other people. I often think to myself, how often do we comment on the weather?

[37:47] If only we commented on the gospel as much as the weather, perhaps it would be a challenge. It's a thought, always a thought in my own mind.

[37:58] When I meet neighbours or something, the first thing you talk about the weather, if only that we had this opportunity to bring the joy that we have, to mention it to others, to share our faith with others.

[38:17] But one thing different, I think, from ourselves to Philip, he was preaching and using signs, but also I think we can apply that to ourselves as well as witnessing our lives.

[38:37] I think we can apply that, that God can use our lives as well as our words to bring someone to Christ. This is a challenge to live our lives for Christ.

[38:52] We discovered this interesting character called Simon, and he was also listening to Philip, and it says he believed.

[39:04] There was a big debate about Simon, but the interesting thing was that what happened to Simon was that he had his own followers.

[39:16] Folk were following Simon, what they could get out of Simon, and he gathered many listeners, and people were paying attention to Simon as he was performing these signs, and it almost made him a god.

[39:34] And what reminded me of was that he was just giving people what they wanted. This guy called Simon, it seems to me he was just giving the people what they wanted.

[39:50] And so when they heard the true gospel, they stopped following Simon, and started to follow, listen to Philip.

[40:01] They were just giving people what they wanted, and they were looking at Simon and his signs, and the great man he was, and that's what they wanted at that time, until they came to realize that when they heard Philip, that he had the best good news of all.

[40:27] So Simon had his followers. I think the difference between Simon and Philip was that Simon was drawing attention to himself, whereas Philip was drawing his attention to Jesus.

[40:44] And that's something you always have to remember as people who are witnessing, never to draw our attention to ourselves. That's what Simon was doing. But opposite to that, Philip was drawing his attention to Jesus, and the good news of Jesus.

[41:00] So never be tempted to take the limelight. There was an instance in Paul and Barnabas, remember when they went to Lystra, it's in Acts chapter 14, they went to Lystra, and people wanted to make them gods.

[41:16] And they were lamenting at this decision. And they soon put that right. They didn't want to be in the limelight. Simon did want to be in the limelight.

[41:29] But when they heard the good news from Philip, then they believed that. So that's something else we learn about Philip. He was spirit-filled. He was preaching Christ.

[41:42] And the third thing that we learn about Philip, as we read on in Acts 8, especially from Euthiop and Eunuch, it's a very interesting way.

[41:58] The first way that Philip was evangelizing was through mass crowds in Samaria. many men and women were converted and baptized and went away with joy in their hearts.

[42:15] The rest of the chapter talks about a one-to-one witnessing with an Ethiopian eunuch. And so God can do both. He used Philip for both things.

[42:28] The big rallies in Samaria, the one-to-one witness with a eunuch as he met him there. One of the things that I would point out with Philip in the eunuch was that he was spirit-led.

[42:51] I think that's quite an important point. He was spirit-led to speak to this person. It wasn't kind of just his own initiative, like I'm going to go speak to this guy.

[43:03] But he was spirit-led to speak to this eunuch. And that's pretty obvious as you read through the chapter again. And let us pray that God will lead us to speak to people who were meant to speak to so that they would listen to the light of the gospel.

[43:23] And so we need prayer to know. Isn't it amazing how Philip was led by God? In this case it was an angel who spoke to him and he was led to go to this man who happened to be in a chariot, who happened to be reading Isaiah 53.

[43:42] And what opportunity that gave Philip as he came to that passage in Isaiah 53. It's so well known, I'm sure you know it.

[43:54] Those who were familiar with AV probably know it all of by heart. But here he had a portion of scripture and Philip used that and he preached Christ from that verse.

[44:09] And Philip opened his mouth and beginning with his scriptures he told them the good news about Jesus. So again Christ entered preaching. His message was Bible based.

[44:21] When he preached he used that scripture to make sure his message was Bible based. It made me think about the opportunities we have.

[44:33] Now I don't practice it myself. But maybe I should. It's an interesting point about how often we should carry tracts of scripture with us just in case we're led to speak to someone.

[44:49] Here's Isaiah 53. Look at that passage and let's discuss it. Oh I've got a portion here of the New Testament talks about that. So it's a challenge.

[45:00] It challenged me again thinking about this. In fact last time I was in our church in Leith. I still go down to Leith to do various things.

[45:11] I grabbed a tract. I thought maybe I should just take one after studying this. I haven't used it yet. But see how God used that one scripture to speak to someone.

[45:23] And this is what Philip did. His message was Bible based. using Isaiah. Imagine the sermon he preached from Isaiah 53. I'm sure all of you know Isaiah 53 and especially these verses and pointing to them.

[45:38] And the unit was very confused about this passage. If you look at many of the commentators today if you look up Isaiah 53 and the commentators some of them will say it's talking about Jeremiah.

[45:57] It's talking about Israel. Is it talking about Jeremiah? Because that's what happened to Jeremiah. He suffered. Is it talking about Israel? Because Israel is called his servant and so on.

[46:10] The debate's got on it. This is why the unit was so confused. And that's why Philip starting from that scripture told them about Jesus Christ. The good news about Jesus.

[46:21] No it's talking about Jesus Christ. All that you read in Isaiah 53 happened to Jesus Christ and he brought him to Christ and he opened his mind and the Holy Spirit spoke to him.

[46:34] And so that's Philip for us. Sorry my thoughts have been disjointed this morning. But I hope from these few thoughts you think of Philip the evangelist.

[46:50] And that comes from if you turn to Acts 21 verses 8 to 9 you'll see why we can call him Philip the evangelist because the Bible tells us his evangelist.

[47:06] On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist. And it tells us there that he was now in Caesarea he had four daughters who were prophets and that's something else we learn about Philip there.

[47:25] He was the evangelist. So anyway Philip was spirit filled. Philip was his preaching was Christ centred preaching and his message was Bible based.

[47:40] May it help us when we share our faith with other people that not only would the Holy Spirit be in us but we would be spirit filled spirit led Christ centred preaching and Bible based.

[47:54] shall we conclude by singing to God's prayer.