2018 Witnessing for Jesus

This short sermon series takes us up to and beyond Pentecost.

It seeks to encourage us to trust in the evidence of the Resurrection, learn from the witnesses of the Scriptures, embrace the power of the Holy Spirit and respond with a heart of worship.

HOW PHILIP WITNESSED, Acts 8:26-40

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Featuring: Aidan Nickerson

Date: Sunday, 27 May, 2018

Media tags: 2018 Witnessing for Jesus

Introduction/Background of Acts

The book of Acts documents the life of the early church and how the message of Jesus was opening their understanding of scripture and transforming their lives and interactions. Over the last weeks we have looked at Jesus' ascension into heaven and the commission to the disciples to go and spread the news to all nations to mature from disciples into apostles (sent ones). We heard last week (or saw if you were at the all age worship) the Holy Spirit descending at pentecost and the disciples being supernaturally empowered to proclaim the news in a whole bunch of different languages, with great effectiveness, to the astonishment and confusion of many people. Now we are looking at the actions of Philip and a more surprising encounter with an Ethiopian eunuch.

Let's start by having a look at these events from the point of the Ethiopian. We know by the fact he is on his way back from worshipping at the temple in Jerusalem that he is either a Jew by birth or a convert to Judaism. As he travels he is reading aloud the prophet Isaiah and is pondering about the passage when a man starts walking alongside him offers him some assistance in understanding. And it turns out he is an expert in the very thing he is reading. What are the chances? Maybe in Jerusalem this would of made sense, but they were miles away from anywhere.

Setting things up

I don't know if you have ever had an experience where things are so coincidental or serendipitous. In the world of scientific discoveries there are a number of these events. One is the tale of Alexander Fleming who in 1928 was growing bacterial cultures in his laboratory. He left the samples out on the bench and went on holiday. On his return he noticed that a mould had contaminated the little dishes of bacteria which had ruined his experiments. However on closer inspection there was a bacteria-free zone around each of the cultures of mould. He published this paper about the antibacterial effects of the Penicillin mould. It was this discovery that was refined by other scientists (Howard Florey, Ernst Chain, Norman Heatley) gave us the first antibiotic that is still in use to this day.

But is that really what is happening here? Was it all a nice coincidence? (2.) We see right at the start of this passage that there was another side to the story. Let's look from Philips point of view. Philip is in Samaria and has been successfully proclaiming the news about Jesus. In fact the importance of the work in Samaria is highlighted by the fact that two of the main apostles had been to confirm the work being done there. Then an Angel appears to Philip and tells him to leave what he's doing and head south on a desert road to Gaza. Whilst he is on his way he is prompted by the Spirit to go and walk alongside a chariot. The man in the chariot is a pretty important Ethiopian, and he is reading something that would have sounded very familiar -

Isaiah 53 v4-6: Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:7-8: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth

The prophet Isaiah! This is the prophet that Jesus himself had quoted to explain his ministry (Luke 4v17). Philip realises what an opportunity he has to share the news about Jesus and offers to help him understand this scripture. He offer is accepted and starting with that scripture he told the good news of Christ (v35).

Philip's testimony

Lets have a quick look at this scripture as Philip may have done: Is the prophet talking about himself or someone else? As is common in with the prophets he was talking not about himself, or at least not only about himself with this passage, but about a future saviour and messiah although it might not sound like it. When God had created the world he made humankind and placed them in a garden where they lived with God in perfect relationship. But mankind fell into the temptation that they could rule apart from God and rebelled against him. As as a direct result the world was cursed, the relationship between God and humanity was broken. God wanted to restore that relationship and worked through a group of people called the Israelites and gave them a land, a kingdom and a promise that through them "all the nations of the world will be blessed" - all would be restored to him. However the Israelites rebelled repeatedly which ultimately forced them out of the land God had given them into captivity, but God was still intent on keeping his promise. Throughout the history of the Israelites God sent prophets - such as Isaiah - to explain what was happening and to reassure them that the promises God made will still be fulfilled and specifically through a future king from amongst them - the messiah. But they also spoke of the messiah being rejected and humiliated (as in this passage) - but this was hidden from them, before they saw him. Jesus performed miraculous signs with the blind made to see, the lame walk even some dead people were raised back to life fulfilling many prophecies. His message was "repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand". The authorities did not accept him or his teaching and they plotted to have him arrested. He was put on trial but he stood silent and despite doing nothing wrong was sentenced to death, a humiliating death by crucifixion. But this was all part of God's plan: in his obedience to death he took on the rebellion of the world and was punished in our place. It is through him that all the nations have now been blessed by being restored to relationship with God. God raised him from the dead and he is placed as judge of all people. This man Jesus was that suffering messiah and God. (3.)

That's just a short summary of the good news of the gospel to give to someone who is reading the prophet Isaiah. I suspect Philip was more eloquent, convincing and thorough as the result was for the Ethiopian to put into action what he had learned: "What can stop me from being baptised" and they pull over there and then and Philip baptises him.

The Ethiopian was primed by God to be able to hear the message of Jesus, He was reading the scripture, he was ready to listen : "how can I understand without someone to explain it for me" and After this discussion he is convicted. Philip was prepared by the spirit to preach the gospel, he was brought to the exact place to be most effective.

Pub story

This is a remarkable story of God preparing the Ethiopian and Philip for this specific moment. So what do we learn from this, how does it apply to us today? I believe God absoultely prepares people for the good works set before them:

2 Corinthians 2v10: For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

And the Holy spirit does set up people to be ready to hear the word. He even puts the two together: I was once in a pub with a good friend of mine and we suddenly overheard a conversation: "How can a good God allow suffering in the world" after they discussed for a short period but then retorted "if only someone could explain this to us".

I wish I could say that I went in and preached the gospel faithfully like Philip did and that they came to know Jesus. But in all honesty I didn't do anything. I was afraid, unsure what to say, convinced that what I would say wouldn't be right or at least not the right thing and went back to my friends. By the time I had built up courage to say something to them they had gone. Even if God orchestrates an opportunity to share the great news we need to be ready to share the gospel. This is not an event that I'm proud of but it's also not an event i'm beating myself up about, I have been forgiven and I aspire to be ready the next time.

So how do we get ready for these encounters? It's through the things we should already know about:

through studying God's word to know the good news we are proclaiming - Jesus Christ - the fulfilment of prophecy - who has saved us from our disobedience although we did not deserve it.
through fellowship spurring one another on when we get things right, and even rebuking when we get things wrong but out of loving kindness to serve the LORD
through prayer: that God will make us bold in situations we would cower in. That his spirit would empower us.

So let me encourage you to study the bible. if you just don't know where to start perhaps consider joining a home group or finding someone to work through a lead bible study with you. Let me encourage you to have fellowship with one another perhaps even today after this part of the service is over. Talk honestly with one another about your evangelism, seek encouragement and encourage one another with testimonies. Let me encourage you to pray. pray regularly, pray always, perhaps even resolve to coming along to prayer meetings. We will see great things done in chineham and beyond.

How Philip witnessed

There is a danger with reading this scripture purely in isolation, that we generalise this event and say it is the only way to evangelise. That we should wait for an Angel to turn up before telling anyone about Jesus, that all the events will go as well as this one did and that if they don't we are doing something wrong. Friends i'd like to firmly state this is not the case. There are many ways that people can hear the message and there are many ways to tell them. If we look just one chapter earlier We see Philip preaching in Samaria and many were saved because of his message. If we read one chapter later we see Paul's conversion by divine intervention - Jesus stepping in. Regarding failure Acts is also riddled with times where the good news of Jesus is met with hostility - with Stephen being killed for his profession, the church in Jerusalem being persecuted because of their faith, pretty much all apostles seem to end up in prison for proclaiming the same message.

But what is consistent is that in all evangelism the Holy spirit is present - preparing, guiding, teaching, empowering. So also in our evangelism we shouldn't rely on our technical capabilities - or learn some three step formula to convert people to Christianity. It is not our job to convert. Our job is to faithfully witness to Jesus and trust that his spirit will do his work.

1Tim v2: (God) wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

In this series we've really only covered a small portion of Acts and I'd encourage you to read and study the book if you have the opportunity, We have sermons on the website from 2015, I do feel it is a great book to challenge us here in the modern church. The tenacity of the apostles, the willingness to give all to share the message and the fantastic sermons.

Conclusions

So as we come to the end of this message let's recall what we can learn in this encounter.

God has a plan for spreading of his word - and it involves us

2 Corinthians v5: We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God.

In this kind of evangalism and most others God entrusts us to tell of what Jesus has done. To be faithful witnesses to his son. We must not shy away from professing the truth, both individually and corporately as Christ's church.
The Spirit is key in proclaiming the gospel

He is at work in the lives of others like the Ethiopian preparing people's heart for their salvation. He is at work in the church training us for his good works that he has prepared in advance for us to do - just as he was in Philip. And he does guide us into situations where we can advance his kingdom.
We should be prepared and know the message - that it is Good news!.

And we prepare by remaining vigilant- studying his word, encouraging one another and praying earnestly.

Perhaps lets end with the preceding verses from Isaiah to remind us what he has done

Isaiah 53 v4-6: Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Amen.