WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 So today we're doing a Lord's Supper, we're doing a communion after the service or after the sermon. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:12.000 And it's also generally a time when we welcome new members into the congregation. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:16.000 So we link the two traditionally. 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:20.000 We welcome new members at a time when we are going to celebrate the Lord's Supper 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:27.000 because membership for us is simply people who have made a credible profession of faith in Jesus Christ 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:33.000 as their own saviour and who wish to be part of the family, part of the congregation 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:41.000 and who wish to serve and be under the spiritual oversight of the elders of the church. 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:45.000 And the Lord's Supper, of course, is a sacrament for Christians. 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:51.000 It's for those who recognise and who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:53.000 And therefore it's core to us. 00:00:53.000 --> 00:01:05.000 The sacrament is core and membership is core because it's the outworking of what is basic and fundamental to us as a church, 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:13.000 the new birth that we are born anew and that we have become those who have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:17.000 It's also today the first day of seven days of prayer. 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:25.000 So at five o'clock today there will be a prayer time downstairs in the hall and that will be then followed by prayer times every morning 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:29.000 at 7am here in the church for a week. We'll have it in here. 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:34.000 And among other things, and your prayer leaflet has information on it, 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:42.000 among other things our seven days of prayer has always had this focus on praying for friends who don't know Jesus Christ. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:48.000 You aren't Christians. People that we love and know, family, friends, 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:55.000 that we have a focus of praying for them to become Christians. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:02:00.000 But the question is what exactly are we praying? 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.000 And as we pray, what is our role? 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:08.000 You know, when we pray we're engaging God. We're speaking to God. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:12.000 We are speaking to God though. We're involved in that. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:16.000 Is that simply a role? Does it go beyond that? 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:21.000 How will God's kingdom come through us? 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:29.000 Are we involved? Is it something we do, are engaged in, beyond praying for our friends? 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:39.000 Is there that sense of urgency and dynamism that comes from recognizing the part we play in the kingdom of God? 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:43.000 Because can I highlight what I think might be a danger in my life? 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:49.000 So if it's in my life, I presume sometimes it might be in at least some of your lives, in your prayer lives anyway, 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:53.000 is that we hide behind the sovereignty of God. 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:57.000 And so we think, that paper is driving me nuts. 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:01.000 We hide behind, sorry, I've drawn your attention to you. 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:05.000 You hadn't even noticed it and now you're going to listen to it the whole time, so please don't. 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:09.000 But it is terrible, apart from anything else. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:12.000 And I hear that all day, every day here when I'm studying. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:14.000 So pray for me. 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:22.000 But the danger is that we hide behind the sovereignty of God when we pray for our friends. 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:28.000 In other words, we pray for our friends and we love them and we would love them to become Christians. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:31.000 But we believe that this is God's work. 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:33.000 It is God who makes Christians. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:36.000 It's God who enables people to be born again. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:39.000 And people are born again by the Spirit. 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:42.000 And we take that truth which we know and which we believe 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:47.000 and we sometimes hide behind that in our prayer life and behind the sovereignty of God. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:50.000 So I've done what I've done. I've done what I have to do. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:54.000 I've prayed for them and we feel significant and good and that's important 00:03:54.000 --> 00:04:00.000 that we feel a good sense of value when we're praying. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:08.000 But just because they're born anew by the Spirit of God, does it mean they're born alone? 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:10.000 That's what we need to ask. 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:12.000 Are they born alone? 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:19.000 Ordinarily is it a sovereign work of God where He doesn't involve anybody else? 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:26.000 Ordinarily we have to say no, because ordinarily we'll have to say that He usually uses us, 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:29.000 and I've said this before here, as part of the answer. 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:33.000 So when we pray for our family members and our friends, the people that we love, 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:36.000 that we are connected with, that we have contact with, 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:46.000 it usually means that God will use us in the spiritual work that we hope happens in their hearts. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:49.000 He uses us as part of the answer. 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:57.000 And can I say then, we are spiritual midwives in this process of God re-birthing people. 00:04:57.000 --> 00:04:58.000 He uses people. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:06.000 In other words, God's Spirit does bring alone people to life, or they are born again by Spirit, 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:13.000 but He usually cooperates at some level with us as He does His great work. 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:19.000 So here we have, and I think it's relevant at the start of seven days of prayer and also the communion, 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:26.000 the story of a new Christian in act, the story of someone becoming a Christian, and it's a great story. 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:36.000 We've got this high-ranking black African Chancellor of the Exchequer kind of guy who works in the palace, 00:05:36.000 --> 00:05:43.000 and his responsibility for all the money, verse 27, tells us that this is an Ethiopian, a Unuch, a court official of Kandasi, 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:46.000 Queen of the Ethiopians. 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:54.000 Now, in all probability, he would have been made a Unuch at birth, castrated in a brutal practice, 00:05:54.000 --> 00:06:00.000 but one that was preparing him allegedly for a life of service to the royal house, 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:07.000 undivided and undistracted by family or other issues. 00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:15.000 So he was a servant and a loyal servant of the Queen of Ethiopia. 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:18.000 It's also probable that he was a Jewish proselyte. 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:21.000 He had come to believe in the Jewish religion. 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:27.000 It may be that he was a mixed-race Jew. 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:37.000 We don't know, but certainly this is someone who, from Ethiopia, is travelling up at the time of the festivals to Jerusalem 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:44.000 to join with the people of God in worship and to seek out God and to seek out the truth. 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:51.000 We're told that that he'd gone to Jerusalem to worship and was returning in his chariot. 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:57.000 And as he's returning in his chariot and he's seeking answers, and we do wonder if he'd been up in Jerusalem 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:03.000 at the time that he would have been there, he may well have at least heard of the goings on about Jesus 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:09.000 and the crucifixion and the message of the resurrection and various things. 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:12.000 We don't know, but he was reading his Bible. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:16.000 He was reading his Old Testament, and he was reading in Isaiah chapter 53, 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:21.000 that great prophetic chapter about the coming of Jesus. 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:27.000 And as he's doing so, we find a second important person coming into the story, Philip. 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:35.000 Philip comes into the story. He's led by the Spirit, and he's led by the Spirit out of a prosperous situation 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:39.000 where many people are coming to faith into the desert. 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:48.000 And he's led there, and as he does so, he sees this chariot, important looking chariot with important looking someone in it 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:54.000 and probably servants as well, and eventually he makes contact with this person who he sees as reading 00:07:54.000 --> 00:08:00.000 or, and very probably reading aloud, and maybe even a servant reading aloud to him from Isaiah. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:08.000 And he takes the opportunity to ask a significant question and the rest is history, as it were. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:15.000 As he explains who this prophet is speaking about, he introduces him to Jesus, 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:22.000 the Jesus that maybe he'd heard about in the previous weeks' events in Jerusalem. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:27.000 And he tells him about who he is, and he says, this is the Redeemer, this is the Saviour, 00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:32.000 this is the one in whom you must put your trust, and God does His work. 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:40.000 And the Ethiopian comes to faith and comes to dramatic faith and is so convinced of that. 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:47.000 Having heard about baptism, he wants, sees water and he says, well, what prevents me from being baptized here and now? 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:54.000 And so he is, and then Philip goes his way, and the Ethiopian goes his way, and we don't hear any more about them. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:59.000 That's the story. That's what we have here. And it's a kingdom story. 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:06.000 In other words, it's an important message, a real story, unique individuals involved in it, 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:10.000 different times to what we're living in today. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:17.000 But then our significant and there are broad spiritual principles as to how God works, who God is, 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:23.000 and how we are to live as Christians, particularly as we think about our friends. 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:29.000 And we should think about those who aren't Christians and how we interact and relate with them. 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:36.000 We have this great responsibility and great privilege to be integral in what God does 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:43.000 in turning people's lives upside down when they come to know Jesus Christ and His salvation. 00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:51.000 They get new life, they go on their way rejoicing, but God has done His work and we have cooperated with that. 00:09:51.000 --> 00:10:02.000 So if I was to summarize this account in one sentence, I would say God used Philip to bring an Ethiopian to faith. 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:06.000 Okay? So I'm going to shorten it even more and just look at the first three words there. 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:09.000 God used Philip. 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:15.000 And I'm going to take from that the principles that I hope can apply to the way we understand God 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:23.000 and also the cooperation and the partnership that we have with Him in sharing the gospel 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:25.000 and seeing the kingdom of God grow. 00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:33.000 So God, first of all, briefly. 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:35.000 God is sovereign. 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:36.000 He is sovereign. 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:41.000 That's what we recognize and see because this is part of God's story. 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:48.000 An act that we've been studying is part of God's story, written by Luke under the inspiration of the Spirit, 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:54.000 telling in an orderly fashion the progress of the New Testament church. 00:10:54.000 --> 00:11:01.000 So it's what we see as something purposeful happening under God's authority. 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:08.000 The Book of Acts is not a random collection of human interest stories, human interest, 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:11.000 or, I think, stroke religious stories. 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:17.000 It's the outworking of what God has commanded the church to do. 00:11:17.000 --> 00:11:24.000 And we've had it as almost the foundation of our study of Acts, Acts 1 and verse 8. 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:28.000 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come into you. 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:34.000 You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Al Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:38.000 Acts beginning to unfold that commission. 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:44.000 So we've seen, Corey spoke about the mega church in Jerusalem, where thousands of people came to faith. 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:51.000 And then we looked last week at that, how persecution forced everyone out of Jerusalem, 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:53.000 apart from the apostles. 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:54.000 So thousands went out. 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:55.000 Where did they go to? 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:57.000 To Judea and Samaria. 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:00.000 And that's what we have in the chapters in between. 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:08.000 And now we come to, almost symbolically, in summary fashion, the gospel going to the ends of the earth, 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:13.000 to the African continent, and then at the end of the chapter to the Gentiles, 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:16.000 and all the Gentiles represent from Caesarea onwards. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:22.000 So there's this progression of the gospel that God is sovereignly revealing 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:26.000 how that gospel miraculously is spread. 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:32.000 And we recognize his sovereignty in bringing people to faith, 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:40.000 in establishing his kingdom in the new birth that he, and the good news that he brings. 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:44.000 So he's sovereign, and because he's sovereign, he knows, doesn't he? 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:46.000 And that is crucial for us. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:50.000 It's crucial for us that he is a purpose and a plan. 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:57.000 Now I know there's mystery, and I know, and he tells us there's much he doesn't reveal. 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:01.000 And there is much that will not be revealed currently. 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:07.000 But by faith, we accept what he has revealed, and we accept what he has done 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:10.000 as a great act of love on our behalf. 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:18.000 And we trust in him for the stuff that we don't know, that he knows, and he's good. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:21.000 You know what it's like with parents that you love? 00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:29.000 You trust them with the stuff that you don't know, because you know they love you. 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:33.000 However difficult sometimes that may be to accept. 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:47.000 But none of us are victims of random action or impersonal chance in this life. 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:55.000 And as you go from here, that must be a significant reality in your Christian life as a believer. 00:13:55.000 --> 00:14:04.000 That we are asked to follow and to trust in him, primarily in what he does reveal in his word. 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:06.000 He gives us all we need to know. 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:08.000 Not all, sometimes we would want to know. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:16.000 But he gives us what we need to know in his love, his justice, his patience, and infinite knowledge. 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:23.000 And he asks us to be content that he knows and he is sovereign. 00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:28.000 And we see that in this story as he works, as he works in the story. 00:14:28.000 --> 00:14:35.000 So if you just looked at the story, or say you were, there was a camera somewhere, 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.000 or you were there somewhere in the distance, and you were in the desert. 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:43.000 And as you saw this story, you would just say, well, here's a chance encounter. 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:45.000 Here's a chariot coming along. 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:47.000 That looks like someone significant and important in that chariot. 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:48.000 I wonder who that is. 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:50.000 Oh, and look, there's a hitchhiker. 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:52.000 And he's staying away from the chariot. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:54.000 Oh, but he's running up now to the chariot. 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:56.000 Oh, now the two are speaking. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:14:57.000 Isn't that random? 00:14:57.000 --> 00:14:58.000 Isn't that amazing? 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:02.000 In the middle of the desert, these two people just have come together and all of a sudden they're talking. 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:04.000 Oh, he's getting in the chariot. 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:09.000 Oh, they're looking for a Bible or something, a book together. 00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:11.000 Goes on and you kind of follow it. 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:13.000 Oh, the chariot stops. 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:14.000 They're both getting out. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:16.000 Oh, they're heading down to the water. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:17.000 No, don't do it. 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:20.000 Oh, maybe it's not so bad. 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:21.000 And then there's a baptism. 00:15:21.000 --> 00:15:27.000 So you look at that and you would simply think that this was a random story of two people. 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:33.000 But what the Bible reminds us and reveals for us is that this is divinely orchestrated. 00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:41.000 So we have a sovereign God who has a purpose and plan, and he has brought these two people together 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:47.000 at this unique and definite time. 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:55.000 So you've got Philip, long before he comes to the desert, being spoken directly to by God, 00:15:55.000 --> 00:16:00.000 by the angel of the Lord, who speaks to him and tells him to go down by the desert towards Gaza. 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:02.000 Gaza? 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:04.000 Why do you want me to go to Gaza? 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:06.000 Things are going well here. 00:16:06.000 --> 00:16:08.000 Things are really prospering spiritually. 00:16:08.000 --> 00:16:11.000 You want me to leave it all and head into the desert? 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:13.000 And you're not going to tell me why? 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:15.000 No reason why you should do this? 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:16.000 Absolutely. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:18.000 Recognize and know. 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:22.000 He simply accepts and moves on. 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:23.000 It's not explained. 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:31.000 And independently, while the Holy Spirit is speaking to Philip, we've got this black African dignitary 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:37.000 who has opened his Bible as he returns home and he's opening it, searching the Scripture. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:41.000 He's searching the Scripture at Isaiah 53. 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:48.000 And we see that all of a sudden from his point of view, this random hitchhiker comes along 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:52.000 who asks him the question, do you know what you're reading? 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:57.000 And this is the guy that can interpret what he's reading, because God has already purposed 00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:03.000 and plans it and has explained how Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah 53 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:10.000 and the good news that he's been looking for and he invites him to put his faith in him. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.000 And that's the story we have of God at work in both of them. 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:19.000 A seemingly random meeting between two people. 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:22.000 Did God need to do that? 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:27.000 Did God need Philip in order for the Ethiopian to be brought to faith? 00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:28.000 No, he didn't. 00:17:28.000 --> 00:17:30.000 He didn't need Philip. 00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:32.000 He could do it sovereignly himself. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:42.000 He could have opened up the truth to that Ethiopian member of royalty simply as he spoke to Philip, 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:44.000 but he chose not to. 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:47.000 He chooses to use people. 00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:52.000 He chooses to use you and me. 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:56.000 And Philip goes his way and Ethiopian goes his way. 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:58.000 And we don't know what became of them. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:02.000 We don't hear much about either of them, or do anything about the Ethiopian after that. 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:07.000 We don't know how much influence they had or how much their lives were changed or what they did. 00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:09.000 But that's fine, because God knows. 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:12.000 And we simply see this story. 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:16.000 So we see that his will is hugely significant. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:23.000 His will is to use you and me to fulfill his sovereign purpose and will. 00:18:23.000 --> 00:18:25.000 He gives us that nobility. 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:27.000 He gives us that significance. 00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:34.000 He wants us to be used to transform other people's lives who are in spiritual darkness. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:45.000 We are part of his rescue mission, and our lives, therefore, and our contacts, therefore, are hugely significant. 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.000 And his plan is to use us for good and for blessing. 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:54.000 Yes, I know within that there's mystery and difficult and dark times. 00:18:54.000 --> 00:19:02.000 But his will for us is that we cooperate and we see God in his sovereignty using us. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:09.000 So when you pray, remember to whom you're praying and remember who he is. 00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:14.000 But also briefly, let's look at Philip briefly here in this story, 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:19.000 because there are some everyday spiritual principles that lie behind this unique interaction. 00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:25.000 And I'm going to use the word lifestyle here to just think about Philip 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.000 in a way that might be challenging to us when we think about our lives 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:34.000 and our interaction with people who are not Christians and our desire to tell them about Jesus, 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:42.000 but our relentless fear to actually say anything in many of us. 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:45.000 Lifestyle. I'm going to break it up to life and style. 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:53.000 So we see Philip's life, his life as a life, not specifically in this situation, but generally. 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:57.000 There's two things I want to say about him. One is he's spiritually sensitive. 00:19:57.000 --> 00:20:04.000 So he's ready and responsive to God's voice in his life. 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:09.000 Now, I know it was in days before the canon of Scripture was completed, 00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:13.000 and so sometimes God would speak directly into people's lives. 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:16.000 But he was listening for God's voice. 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:23.000 He was in that relationship with God where he expected God to guide him and speak to him and lead him. 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:26.000 It was it was formational for his whole life. 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:32.000 He was steeped not only in a spiritual sensitivity towards what God might say, 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:34.000 but also to what God had revealed. 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:38.000 So he knows the Old Testament, which he did have, back to front. 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:45.000 He knew that well, so he knew when he was speaking to the Ethiopian from Isaiah 53 what it was all about. 00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:52.000 So he knew God's Word. He understood it, and he was spiritually sensitive to God's leading. 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:57.000 Now, we have God's completed Word. We have Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, 00:20:57.000 --> 00:21:02.000 and that is what we recognize as his revealed will for us, his word to us. 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:10.000 And we have his indwelling Spirit who guides our conscience and who teaches us to respond to him and to his Word. 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:24.000 And as we live our lives spiritually sensitive, then we will hear God guiding and leading and showing us how we should live. 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:31.000 As we are prayerful, as we live with an open Bible, and as we are sensitive prayerfully to what he says. 00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:38.000 It ceases to be a dead, dry, dead historical book of religious fascination or otherwise. 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:42.000 But it becomes more than that. Yes, it is all of these things. 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:49.000 Well, it's not dead and dry, but it's a living history of the mission of God. 00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:54.000 God wants us to know about life, about ourselves and about his salvation. 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:56.000 So spiritually sensitive. 00:21:56.000 --> 00:22:06.000 Now, I think I've said this before. I am a little bit cynical when people say God spoke to me and told me to do this, that and the next thing. 00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:17.000 Because sometimes I think we just use that to justify doing what we want and just tagging God's will onto it, using God to justify what we want to do, 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:21.000 and giving it that kind of infallible authority. 00:22:21.000 --> 00:22:33.000 But on the other hand, I think that's maybe one extreme or the other extreme, then we have to be careful as well about never thinking that God speaks to us, 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:39.000 or that we are unresponsive to him, and to his words. 00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:43.000 It's spiritually sensitive with an unqualified obedience. 00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:53.000 That's what we see about him. He was sensitive to the word, and his life was one of unqualified obedience to God's command. 00:22:53.000 --> 00:23:01.000 He went to Gaza. He didn't sit and ask lots of questions. He didn't wait. 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:07.000 He just went forward and responded to what was revealed to him. 00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:14.000 And that, in terms of life for us, is to be the backdrop of our lives. 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:22.000 What God reveals for us, what He's made clear, in other words, His laws of love, and that's what the command is about. 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:29.000 They're laws of love, loving Him, loving one another. They're perfectly clear. They're absolutely simple. 00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:39.000 We don't need a degree or some kind of deep theological understanding to get them. And He wants us to be unqualified in our obedience to His laws of love. 00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:49.000 That's what He wants from us. He wants us to be spiritually sensitive and also aware that He wants us to obey His great laws of love, 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:59.000 without reservation, that we deal in forgiveness, that we deal with our bitterness, our anger, our separation from our need for purity, 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:09.000 that we use the means of grace, all these things that we are servants, lovingly, willingly of our good and gracious God. 00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:15.000 That's the backdrop to Philip's usefulness. It's the backdrop. It's the scaffold. It's the key. 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:22.000 It's the key that he had this great ongoing developing relationship with his God through Jesus Christ. 00:24:22.000 --> 00:24:29.000 He was looking to Christ and he was a servant of Christ. So that was his life. That's kind of the backdrop. 00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:36.000 So when we ask about our lives and whether we are sharing our faith or whether we have opportunities here at faith, 00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:49.000 maybe sometimes we need to look within ourselves first and foremost as to our openness to His guidance and also our unqualified obedience to His laws of love. 00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:57.000 Then style, if we're looking at lifestyle, what about his style here as he deals with this Ethiopian leader? 00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:04.000 When it comes to sharing his faith, so we say, there's three things and I close with this. The first is he's opportunistic. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:11.000 He might have thought as he walked along the desert, this is not very fruitful place for me to be. 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:19.000 There's a carriage over there but this guy is not the same class. He's way above me. I can't come near him. 00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:23.000 He's not going to want to speak to me. I've got nothing in common with him. 00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:28.000 But yet he responded to God, go nearer the chariot. 00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:35.000 And then as he listened, he was ready and willing and able to ask the relevant question. He didn't know what the response would be, 00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:43.000 but he had the courage and the boldness to take the initiative. Opportunistic, that's what I mean at that level. 00:25:43.000 --> 00:25:48.000 And I think we are to be that also in our lives spiritually. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:59.000 It may not sometimes seem a very fruitful friendship spiritually or it might not seem that this is the kind of person that will speak to me or of anything to do with me. 00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:10.000 But as the opportunity arises, we need the boldness to take the initiative and ask the right questions that might open up spiritual conversation. 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:20.000 Philip didn't just plow into some kind of ABC of steps of faith to bring you to Jesus. He asked a question. 00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:26.000 That's a great opener, isn't it? We ask questions. What is it? What are you struggling with? What are the things? 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:29.000 So it's opportunistic and sensitive. 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:34.000 The second thing is that it's word-based Christ-centered. 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:43.000 As he shared his faith, it was word-based Christ-centered. Now I know it was a guilt-edged opportunity because the guy who was reading from Isaiah 53, 00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:49.000 we might not get that opportunity very often in our lives, we pray for them. 00:26:49.000 --> 00:26:52.000 But that's where we want to get people to. 00:26:52.000 --> 00:27:01.000 We want to get people where we can introduce them to Jesus Christ and His Word and our experience of Jesus. 00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:09.000 So Philip shared the good news and that undoubtedly would have involved his own coming to faith as well as who Jesus was. 00:27:09.000 --> 00:27:18.000 So that's the key. That's one of the keys to us sharing our faith is not really telling people about ourselves. 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:24.000 Yes, maybe our experience of who Christ is and what He's done, but we're pointing them to Him. 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:29.000 I think it would be a really helpful thing. I know it would be for me and I'm sure it might be for you. 00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:39.000 If you're getting towards that stage with a friend and a family member who's not a believer, give them the gospel of Luke and say to them, 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:50.000 okay, read a couple of chapters, write down any questions you have and we'll come back together over coffee or a pint or something and we'll just discuss them. 00:27:50.000 --> 00:28:00.000 Let the Word speak. Let Christ introduce Himself through His Word to them and just do that. Have confidence in the Word. 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:07.000 It was Word based and Christ centered and that's where he cooperates with. 00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:12.000 Philip didn't bring this man to faith. God did. It was God who revealed Himself, but it was through Philip. 00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:19.000 And we don't need to worry about making people be born again because we can't do that. That's God's Word. 00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:26.000 So it was Word based Christ centered. And I think it was also unselfish in the sense it was more about Christ than it was about Philip. 00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:34.000 He knew it was God's work and yet he brought him to this point of decision in verse 37. He takes him to that place where he's going to get baptized. 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:40.000 He wasn't precious about that. He didn't take the glory. He didn't worry about his reputation. 00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:46.000 I don't know if he should get baptized. Maybe he should go through 25 membership classes first before we can do anything like that. 00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:50.000 Or must plug him into a church. No, he just says, right, good, baptize him. 00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:58.000 It's understated what Philip does himself, but he trusted in God and he never saw, presumably, probably never saw this guy again. 00:28:58.000 --> 00:29:08.000 He went to Caesarea. The other went to Egypt. He was sowing the seed. The conversion was God's work, as was the expected fruit. 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:16.000 So as we go into this week, can we remind ourselves, as we've said at the Lord's table, the good news that we have. 00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:25.000 And that's really what Philip shares in this chapter, as he explains with this scripture. He told them the good news about Jesus. 00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:30.000 Let's remind ourselves why Jesus is good news for us as Christians as we celebrate the Lord's Supper. 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:41.000 And as we do so, can we think about Philip's usefulness with his friends and as we think of our friends and members of our... 00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:49.000 Philip's usefulness in sharing his faith with this man and how we can learn from that with our friends and with our family 00:29:49.000 --> 00:30:00.000 to understand God's place, God's role, God's character and his willingness that people come and are born on you, not on their own. 00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:06.000 They come ordinarily through God using his people. 00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:17.000 Can we therefore be expectant as we pray and looking for opportunities to share Jesus Christ with them? 00:30:17.000 --> 00:30:26.000 Please take time to hear his voice as we think about our own lives and our own... 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:32.000 what we seek to be, a humble walk of faith. Let's bow our heads and pray. 00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:41.000 Father God, we ask and pray that you would bless us as we think about Scripture and as we think about God's role 00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:47.000 and our role in the spreading of your kingdom and your purpose and your plan. 00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:56.000 We see many, many hundreds of thousands and millions of people since the New Testament having been brought into the kingdom. 00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:10.000 And we have seen you use other Christians to share their faith, often imperfectly, often stumbling, often with great fear. 00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:20.000 And yet Lord, help us to just be courageous enough to tell people about Jesus and leave it with them and leave it with you to work in their hearts. 00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:30.000 We pray for that. We pray for our time of prayer this week, that it would be vibrant and passionate and real as we recognise as a community. 00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:41.000 Our longing to see many people coming to faith in this great city that we love so much and that we long to see responding to the good news of Jesus. 00:31:41.000 --> 00:32:01.000 Bless us also as we celebrate the Lord's Supper today. For Jesus' sake, amen.