Good morning, everyone.
It's nice and echoey.
My name's David.
It's great to be with you here this morning
as we look forward to an exciting week,
hopefully, that we've all got together,
this week of college mission and St Paul's mission.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
I guess the question that that raises is,
what is it that actually causes a bunch of reclusive Bible
students to crawl out from behind the books for this brief week
and come out to Chatswood?
Or even more confusing, what is it
that causes a bunch of otherwise right-thinking individuals
such as yourselves to let us in the door,
never mind even inviting us?
Of course, the answer, as we've touched on, is mission, isn't it?
I'm sure you've heard a bit about it over the last few weeks.
I know we have.
You see, at the college, we're convinced,
just as you are as a church,
that it's incredibly important that we get out and about
and tell anyone who will listen this wonderful message of Jesus,
of his death, his resurrection,
the wonderful message of forgiveness that that brings to us.
But I guess I want to ask, why is that important?
Why are we going to the effort this week?
And why is it that we'd love as many of you as possible to be involved?
Well, this morning, as we consider this meeting
between Philip and the Ethiopian there in Acts 8,
we're going to find an answer to this question.
And I hope that as we go through this story,
if you're not convinced of the importance of mission,
you will be by the end of it.
If you're convinced, I hope that you'll be reminded of why it's so important,
maybe reinvigorated for the coming week.
So with that in mind, let's turn to that passage
as we wrestle with that question together.
You'll find it helpful to keep it open in front of you.
And as we turn there, the first thing we can take from it
is that God has a message which he wants people to understand.
God has a message which he wants people to understand.
Now, to really see this,
we've got to start all the way back at the beginning of the book,
back there in chapter 1, verse 8.
By this point, Jesus has come.
He's lived his life.
He's died.
He's been raised from the dead.
But before he goes back to heaven to wait there until he comes again,
he tells his disciples what's going to happen from there,
gives them the rundown.
And he says to them, there in 1.8,
you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem
and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
And so with those words ringing in our ears
as we go through this story,
we need to understand God is intending on working through
these very ordinary men, his disciples,
to bring his message to the absolute ends of the earth.
And so even in this story as we consider it,
we're expecting big things from God, aren't we?
We're expecting to see that God himself will be at work
at making the opportunities happen,
at making this message spread,
and he doesn't disappoint us.
And so in verse 26, we see him telling this man,
Philip, head down to this road in the middle of nowhere
in the desert that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.
And Philip goes off, as he's told.
And as he's travelling, he crosses paths
with this Ethiopian eunuch there in verse 27.
Now, there's a few things we're told about this eunuch.
First of all, we're told he's a fairly important guy.
I don't think being the high-ranking official
for the Ethiopian Queen is that impressive now,
but I take it it must have been a bit more
of an impressive thing back then.
However, more importantly for what we're saying,
what we need to understand today,
is that we're told two other things.
First of all, that he's involved in the Jewish faith
and somehow he's just been up to Jerusalem
where he's worshipping,
and as he comes back, he's reading the book of Isaiah,
part of the Hebrew Scriptures,
something that we will find in our Old Testament there.
However, jarring with that is the fact
that he's also a eunuch.
We're told he's a eunuch.
Now, I'll assume you know what that is
rather than going into it,
but suffice to say, gentlemen,
you don't want to be one.
Now, the reason that's significant, though,
is that if we go back to Deuteronomy 23, verse 1 there,
part of the Jewish law,
we see that eunuchs essentially
can never be full members of God's people.
Added to this is the fact that he's an Ethiopian,
not a Jew.
He's a Gentile.
So there's a further barrier there, isn't there?
He will always be an outsider
simply by virtue of who he is among God's people.
Well, as this man's travelling back from Jerusalem
and he and Philip cross paths,
God tells Philip,
look, head over near the chariot.
And so he does.
And he gets close enough to hear him reading.
And what he's reading there
is from the book of Isaiah in verse 30.
Sorry, and in verse 30, he says,
Philip says,
do you understand what it is that you are reading?
Now, it's worth just pausing for a moment here
to ask ourselves
how it is that God has brought this situation about
because he's at work everywhere, isn't he?
We've seen that's what he intends to do
back in chapter 1, verse 8.
That's what he's telling us.
And here we see Philip sent down by God.
He comes across this Ethiopian's path.
Sorry.
And it's God who has put this book
in the Ethiopian man's hands, isn't it?
This whole situation,
we're seeing God working
to make his message known.
It's God who's acting here.
And so Philip asks the question of him
in verse 31.
Or in verse 30,
do you understand what you're reading?
Which brings the response from the Ethiopian
there in verse 31.
Which brings us really to the heart of the passage
and then to our second point.
That is that Jesus is the message
that God wants people to understand.
And we see there in verse 31,
the Ethiopian replies and says,
how can I?
Unless someone explains it to me.
And so he invited Philip to come up
and sit with him.
I wonder, how did you become a Christian?
If we went around this room right now
and asked that question
to everyone individually,
I'm sure we'd have as many stories
as we have people in here.
God uses an amazing array of circumstances
and of experiences
to bring people to himself.
But for all these different experiences
that we might have,
there'd be at least one thing
that all of us have in common.
And that is that someone
will have taken the time
to explain this message to you.
To teach it to you.
Just think about it for a minute.
It may be that you grew up
with Christian parents
who have taught you the gospel
for longer than you can remember.
It may be that you had a friend
in school or somewhere else
that invited you along
to a youth group,
to a church service.
And it was there
that you first heard the gospel.
It may be that someone
approached you completely out of the blue,
just walked up to you and said,
let's talk.
Or that you approached them.
At the very least,
you will have had to pick up a Bible
and start reading this message
for yourself, wouldn't you?
Whatever your experience,
whatever your story
and the particulars of that,
you needed to hear this message
and understand it
in order to believe it.
You needed to be told, didn't you?
Now the Ethiopian man,
he gets this.
He knows he doesn't understand
what he's reading,
but he wants to.
And so he invites Philip
to come up into the chariot
and explain this passage
from Isaiah for him.
And as we continue to read there
in verses 32 and 33,
we see the passage he's reading
is from Isaiah 53.
It's part of that wonderful,
long passage
that we just had read to us earlier.
Now we can probably assume
that on a long journey like that,
he's reading more than
the couple of lines
that are quoted there.
and we'll have read at least
the stuff that comes before,
including these lines
in verses 5 and 6,
where Isaiah says,
but he was pierced
for our transgressions.
He was crushed
for our iniquities.
The punishment
that brought us peace
was upon him
and by his wounds
we are healed.
We all like sheep
have gone astray.
Each of us has turned
to his own way
and the Lord
has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
Now for those of us
here today
that have been fortunate enough
to have been taught
well over a long period of time,
to have known
what Jesus did on the cross,
we read that
and it just screams out
Jesus, doesn't it?
Just think about it briefly.
We have a man here
who was,
he was pierced,
crushed,
it was done
as a punishment,
it was a punishment
for sins
and it buys us
peace with God.
We have here words
that were written
700 odd years
before Jesus came
and walked this earth
yet what we were reading
could well have been taken
straight from the New Testament,
couldn't it?
Used to describe
exactly what Jesus did
on the cross
and in fact
these are words
that we see springing up
throughout the New Testament
which the authors use
for exactly that purpose
and it's just for the testament
to the fact
that God is working
his plan out here.
He's directing the situation
because it's hard to imagine
that at this point
any other passage
of scripture
that this man
could be reading
would point so clearly
towards Jesus
and yet right at that moment
that's what he's reading
but the Ethiopian man
doesn't yet know
what we know
sitting here today.
He hasn't heard
about the cross,
he doesn't know
the connection
between what he's reading
there in Isaiah
and what Jesus
has only just done
and so in verse 34
he asks Philip,
tell me please
who is the prophet
speaking about
himself or someone else?
And we're told
in verse 35
that Philip starts there
and answers him
by explaining
the good news of Jesus
from that passage.
That is who the prophet
is speaking of
isn't it?
Jesus.
You see God
has this message
that he wants people
to understand
the message of Jesus
and it says Philip
takes that chance
to walk up
to the chariot there
and ask a very simple
question of this man
that that message
is explained
to a person
who would otherwise
not have grasped it
at this point.
God has used
a very ordinary man,
Philip,
to make this message known.
And we see
the message spreading
just as Jesus
says it would
in 1.8.
This Ethiopian man
can understand
because someone
has explained
the message to him.
Well as they travel
we see
I guess some time
passes there
between verses 35
and 36
as the two men talk.
Who knows
how that conversation
went?
Who knows exactly
what questions
the Ethiopian's asking?
Who knows what
responses Philip
is giving?
All we know
is that Philip
is explaining
the message of Jesus
at this time
and by the time
we get to verse 36
this man's life
has been changed.
They come across
some water.
Our Ethiopian friend
there is baptised.
Philip's taken away
at that point.
Who knows how exactly.
But he's able
to rejoice
isn't he
the Ethiopian?
His life
has been changed
by this message.
Can you just imagine
the joy he felt?
Imagine the joy
he feels
as he comes
to realise
that the fact
that he's a Gentile
rather than a Jew
is not a barrier
between him
and God.
The fact
that he's a eunuch
is not a barrier
between him
and God's people
doesn't make him
an outsider.
Just imagine
the joy
he feels
as he comes
to realise
Jesus has died
in his place.
That whatever
his life
has looked like
he can be forgiven
because of that.
This is a life
changing message
isn't it?
If you've come
to understand
this message
this gospel
of Jesus
and all that
he has done
for you
you know that.
You know
that it's Jesus
and what he has
done that changes
lives.
Jesus is the message
that God wants
us to understand.
But the question
we need to ask
is how does this
help us for mission
this week?
And I think
the answer to that
lies in that question
that the Ethiopian
asks back in verse 31.
How can I know
unless somebody
explains it to me?
As I'm sure
you're all aware
every few years
the government
takes a census.
You've probably
all partaken
in many of them
and that involves
a huge questionnaire
of all sorts
of questions
to everyone
in the country.
Very time consuming
and annoying
but they do
what they've got
to do.
Now in Chatswood
in the last census
about 19 or 20%
of the people
surveyed said
they belong
to some form
of Bible believing
Christian denomination.
Someone that takes
this gospel message
of Jesus seriously.
Now the reality
is that the number
is probably far
less than that
but even if we
assume it's right
for a minute
that's one in five
people.
That's only one
in five people
at best.
Think about
what that means
just for a minute.
It means as you
walk out this door
today,
as you drive home,
as you go about
your business
in Chatswood,
you can safely
assume that as many
or at least
80% of the people
you come across
do not know
this message,
do not understand
this message.
That's 80%
out of the people
that you work with,
the people
that you chat with
when you're dropping
the kids off
at school every morning,
of the people
you play weekend
sports with,
the people
you socialise with,
80%,
a number that
likely includes
large numbers
of your best friends,
maybe even members
of your family,
those nearest
and dearest to you.
Many of them
that simply just
do not know
this gospel message,
do not know
the forgiveness
that you know,
do not have
the hope of heaven
that you have.
This is exactly
why we need
to be doing mission,
isn't it?
It's safe to assume
the vast majority
of the people
we come in contact
with day in,
day out,
simply don't know
this message.
They don't know
the gospel.
But we do.
If we're sitting
in this place
for any length
of time,
then I can assume
you have heard
this gospel message
taught faithfully.
Even this morning
in just the confessions,
the songs,
the prayers,
it's been everywhere,
hasn't it?
Now, if you haven't
heard of Jesus,
if you don't understand
all that he has done,
then can I please
encourage you
to talk to someone
before you go.
We would love
nothing more
than to help
you understand.
But if you do
know this message,
and if your life
has been changed,
turned upside down
for the best
by it,
well then we need
to ask ourselves,
how will the people
out there
that don't know it
come to understand
it if we won't
explain it to them?
They're certainly
not looking,
most of them.
How will they know
if we won't tell?
Now, a number
of years ago now,
my life was changed
profoundly.
When I went to go
and get married,
and part of that
was sitting down
at the local church
with a group of people,
and we talked
about the gospel.
And as we went,
I'm someone who's
always thought
that I understood it,
but as we went,
I realised I'd
misunderstood the gospel
in profound ways.
My wife,
on the other hand,
came from a background
where she knew
nothing of Jesus.
It had never been
part of her childhood,
and quite frankly,
the last thing she
thought she wanted
to be doing
with her Thursday nights
was sitting around
talking to a bunch
of people about Jesus.
That was not what
she thought she wanted.
But see,
as those people
explained it to us,
and we came to understand
this message of Jesus,
it's changed our lives
immensely.
Even if we didn't
think we would be,
we are now profoundly
grateful for the people
who took the time
and the effort
to do that.
We'd never have known
had they not explained it.
We weren't trying to.
This Ethiopian man
would never have known
this message
had someone not
explained it to him.
We've got to take
seriously the fact
that the majority
of the people
that we're out there
with in Chatswood
every day
will not come
to know this message
if people like us
are not prepared
to get out there
and tell them.
That's why we're
on mission.
We have the most
important message
that anyone could
ever need to hear,
even if they don't
realise they need it yet.
That is why this church
and many others
like it across our world
will continue
to tell people
about this message
until there's no world
to tell it to.
That's why we're here
this week.
That's why we'd love
as many of you
as possible
to come and join us
in that work.
And to that end
will you pray with me?
Father,
we do thank you
for all that you
have done in Christ
that we might be forgiven.
We ask now
that as we head out
into Chatswood
this coming week
and beyond
that you would be acting
to make this wonderful
gospel message known.
Please prepare people,
soften their hearts
so that they might
respond
and give us courage
to take the opportunities
that are presented to us
to explain this gospel.
And we ask this
for your glory.
Amen.
and we ask this
talking about
there are
questions
that you
have we
have
and find this
wonderful
love