Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Acts chapter 8 as we see how at times God calls us to do things, to go places that we have no idea why. All He does is to tell us to go and we are going to look at one man and how he obeyed the Lord’s calling, as foolish as it sounded, and the fruit that was born from his faithful obedience. As you are turning to Acts chapter 8 listen to this story that Warren Wiersbe tells. He said:
It was a stormy night in Birmingham, England, and Hudson Taylor was to speak at a meeting at the Severn Street schoolroom. His hostess assured him that nobody would attend on such a stormy night, but Taylor insisted on going. “I must go even if there is no one but the doorkeeper.” Less than a dozen people showed up, but the meeting was marked with unusual spiritual power. Half of those present either became missionaries or gave their children as missionaries; and the rest were faithful supporters of the China Inland Mission for years to come.
- W. Wiersbe, Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching and Preachers, p. 242
In our study this morning, Stephen has been martyred for his faith in Jesus Christ by the Jewish religious leaders. This set-off intense persecution against Christians spear-headed by Saul as he was arresting people for their faith in Christ. This persecution did not stop this movement, but it spread the Gospel outside of Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria!
Philip, who was previously waiting on tables for Christ, ministering to the widows of the church by giving them food and other essentials for them to live by, is now called to go to Samaria. And as Philip spoke forth the Good News of Jesus Christ to the people of Samaria a revival broke out. We read in Acts 8:7-8, “For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city.”
With so many being saved, and also because they were Samaritans and hated by the Jews, Peter and John came to help out in this work, representing the Jewish Christians. In doing this they were telling these Samaritan believers that they too are part of the family of God, they are one in Christ, which must have brought even more joy to these new believers! Also, Peter and John laid hands on them and they received the empowering of the Holy Spirit upon their lives!
Now if that happened today, if revival like that broke out, the logical step would be to start a tent-ministry, maybe get a building because this is the place to be! As I said on Thursday to the Green Acres theme, “Samaria was the place to be. Salvation is the life for me. Land spreading out so far and wide, forget Gaza, just give me that Samaritan countryside!”
But that is not what happens here, as we will see. Just keep in mind that there is a great work of God that is taking place in Samaria and then we read beginning in verse 26 of Acts chapter 8 . . .
In this section we see several steps that Philip is instructed to take, to walk, by the Lord. What I want you to notice is that before step two is revealed, Philip had to take step one. Folks, like it or not, that is how God works with us. He doesn’t show us everything that will happen to us but He tells us to take step one first and then the picture will become a little clearer as you take step two, and then step three and-so-on.
Step one for Philip seems simple enough, go down to Gaza, a desert or deserted place. Now this is in sharp contrast to what was happening in Samaria, people getting saved, healings, deliverance, God was truly moving and now this! Philip is to leave this populated area where God was working and go down to a place where it is deserted! How many of you, honestly, would go? I bet very few! I don’t think I would go, it just would not make sense to our minds, our human wisdom.
Why wouldn’t people go and take that step? Because they are basing their activities on outward circumstances and that if things work out, it is of God, and that is not always the case. Also, pride gets in the way. “How can I leave this place where I am setting up the Joey Big Tuna Healing Hospital, and all those posters are already made up with my picture on it and we have that Joey Big Tuna Evangelistic World-Wide Tour coming up? It just won’t fit my schedule!” You see, it is because we get in the way, it is all about us and not what God wants to do and that is pride!
Philip was called to go down to Gaza and we are told, “. . . ‘Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ This is desert.” Acts 8:26. And what did Philip do? We read “So he arose and went. . .” Acts 8:27. That is a remarkable statement that is made of Philip. He was told to go and he went! And please understand that he was not told anything more than to go to this desert or deserted place, step one that was it! He wasn’t told what he was going to do there, what was awaiting him there; all he was told to do was “. . . ‘Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down form Jerusalem to Gaza.’ This is desert.” Acts 8:26, and he went!
So God is working in Philip and He is also working in another man, setting the stage for Philip to minister you might say. You see, on this road was this Ethiopian eunuch who was in charge of the finances for the queen, a wealthy man, a man of importance, you might call him the Minister of Finance. He had it all but he also knew that he was missing something in his life. He knew that life was more than power, it was more than money, it was more than all he had! What a remarkable place to come to in your life.
So this man went to Jerusalem for one reason, to try and find God, to find meaning to his life, to find what was missing in his life and he makes this long journey for that purpose. But, because the Jewish religious system was so corrupted he left as he came, empty. He wasn’t any closer to God now and the only thing he took back with him was the scroll of Isaiah. That tells me this man was serious about finding God because the scroll of Isaiah was very expensive to purchase. So as he is heading home he begins to read out of this scroll of Isaiah, searching for God!
So as Philip is walking down this dusty, desert road God gives him step two, “. . . ‘Go near and overtake this chariot.’” Acts 8:29. Now please understand, that is all Philip knew. He didn’t know who he was going to meet, what kind of meeting it was going to be, what the outcome of all this would be. He was told to go and we are told “So Philip ran to him. . .” Acts 8:30. Notice Philip started to run now, he is excited to see the possibility of ministry and he overtook this chariot and as he was beside it, he heard this man reading out of the scroll of Isaiah, which tells me that Philip knew the Word of God to be able to differentiate what book he was reading from.
Step three is next, is this an open door for ministry? Philip is going to find out as he asks a very simple question to this Ethiopian eunuch – “. . . ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’” Acts 8:30. I think too often we make things so complicated when in reality, just ask a question and see what happens! This Ethiopian eunuch responds by saying “. . . ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ . . .” Acts 8:31. It is at this point that this eunuch invites Philip to come up and teach him.
Now, Philip didn’t think, “I wonder if God is in this?” He didn’t say, “I’ll be back in a week, I need to pray about this one!” Nor did he say, “I have to go home to get me concordance and my commentaries and if my pastor is home, I will bring him too!” The door was open and Philip entered in and as this eunuch is hearing these words he is wondering what they mean, what does this portion of Isaiah mean, as he is reading from Isaiah chapter 53 regarding the suffering servant, and he asks a great question as he said “. . . ‘I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?’” Acts 8:34.
It is at this point that Philip shares Jesus with this eunuch, telling him that this Suffering Servant of Isaiah is Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world who paid in full the penalty for all your sins. This longing for fulfillment in his life, this searching for God is now fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. It is as the Lord said in Jeremiah, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13. After he hears this Good News of Jesus he wants to be baptized, he wants his servants to see he has forsaken everything else and has now surrendered his life to Jesus!
If someone responded like that to us we would be dipping them in water, throwing water on them, throwing them into a pool, tossing water balloons at them, getting them drenched with water anyway we could, but not Philip. He first wants to make sure this man is saved because water baptism is meaningless, it doesn’t save a person. And the eunuch responds by saying to Philip, “. . . ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’” Acts 8:37. Kerplunk! The man was baptized!
Then Philip is taken away and lives out his life in the area of Caesarea where he raises a family and several of his daughters are prophetesses. The Ethiopian eunuch went back home a changed man. All that he was longing for he found in Jesus and now he brings that Good News, the Gospel Message to his people! The thing I want you to notice is that God directs our steps and thus, we need to move forward because before He will show us step five, we must take step one, step two, step three and step four! It is a call to obedience, a call to trust in the Lord no matter what may happen, no matter how foolish it may seem!
In saying that, we must be wise about this. Some hear that and do things that are just foolish. For instance, they quit their job because they have been called into the ministry. The only problem is there are only four people coming to the Bible study they are having and that is not going to support them or their family. Paul made a very interesting point regarding this in II Thessalonians 3:10, “For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.”
I know of one person, I won’t tell you where he is from, he doesn’t go to this church, but he believes he is in the ministry and yet he has no job to support his family and he is receiving aid from the government to help support him and his family. That is wrong! Thus, if what you are feeling goes against the Scriptures, what God has said in His Word, then you are wrong and God is not calling you to do it! I think that is simple, I think that it makes sense, doesn’t it?
Over the past few months we have seen our military forces go to the Middle East to remove a dictator from Iraq. Thousands of men and women, over 250,000 left their homes here and traveled to a place that is what we might call a desert, literally! Many Christians were among those troops that went and some may have wondered why? What is the purpose of going to a desert? Maybe some where taken away just as a ministry for them seemed to be growing, things were happening, and now this, transported to Iraq, a desert, a deserted place you might say!
Now step one was kind of set for them, but they could have become angry at God for doing this to them, and in doing so not listening to what God was saying. Let me give you just a few examples that God can still work even in the most dry, desolate, far away places, places where you would think nothing could happen, as with Philip, but they went forward and walked, and there was fruit born out of it.
Tammi Jagemann’s brother, Shayne is in the military and he was deployed to the Middle East. Shayne was recently married so he left behind his wife and as hard as it was for him to go, and as hard as it was to be there in the Middle East, he went there wondering what God would do. Weeks before the war began Shayne had some Bible studies, some came to know the Lord through his sharing his faith, fruit was born as he took that step of faith, as he walked and as he took that step, God was working and He still is working!
This is from World Net Daily, Saturday, March 23, 2003 where we read:
One piece of equipment thousands are relying on for protection and peace of mind is the RDK, or Rapid Deployment Kit.
Distributed by Military Ministry, a division of Campus Crusade for Christ, the RDK is a Ziploc bag full of Scripture, including the New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs and a 90-day devotional guide.
As the Beverly LaHaye Institute first reported, the RDK figures prominently in the gear shipped over to troops in the Persian Gulf, and ministry workers are scrambling to fill some 40,000 orders.
Requests from commanders, chaplains, soldiers, sailors and airmen continue to pour in, including one scrawled message on a piece of cardboard which reads: “I have a Bible . . . but the guys in my unit don’t have any. Can you send [Bibles] over?” . . .
. . . Abel runs the Military Ministry. He said demand for the RDK skyrocketed in the wake of Sept. 11 terror attacks.
“I was sort of overwhelmed by it,” he said. “We sent out 400,000 prior to the war. We have orders for 40,000 and many of those are from the war zone.”
“The reality of death for a young person becomes quite apparent when you’re going into battle. If you have faith in Christ, that gives you peace that passes all understanding, even in the midst of the storm or the battle.”
- WorldNetDaily, Thousands of troops requests Bibles, March 22, 2003
The exciting thing to me is it is not just the Chaplain’s or those with the titles that are ministering, it is Christian soldiers sharing their faith with their buddies, those that are fighting alongside with them, something that may have not taken place if it weren’t for this battle. God is still working!
One more article, this is from Decision Magazine, May 2003 and we read,
When you come face-to-face with the possibility of your own death, you tend to wonder if you are ready to meet God. At times like that, it’s nice to know someone who can explain what the Bible says. . . . Many troops in the Middle East have turned to Jesus in recent weeks. U. S. Army Chaplain Maj. Juan Crockett, of the 4th Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, reports that in the weeks before the war began, he was holding six worship services on Sundays, with an average attendance of 160 each. What’s more, 12 to 15 soldiers were giving their lives to Christ during each of those services.
Cook said that back home at Fort Bragg, in Fayetteville, N.C., about 75 people usually attend his chapel services. In the Middle East, however, the average attendance has been about 250. Cook said that he baptized more than 80 members of his 750-member battalion during the weeks leading up to the war.
It’s not just chaplains who are serving God in the Gulf region. One Navy SEAL, Chief Warrant Officer Darren Davis, led two of his men to Christ in the weeks leading up to the war. He reported that the men were spiritually hungry and were asking Davis questions about his faith. They would see him respond to stressful situations in a Christlike way and ask, “What’s your secret? What do you have that I don’t have?” . . .
. . . The Bible studies are bringing results.
One private, Cook said, has developed a commitment to personal
evangelism. At one Bible study, Cook emphasized that every Christian
needs to be able to lead someone else to Christ.
After the study, the private left but came running back
about a minute later, frantically asking Cook for a Bible.
“I did what you told me,” the private said. “I told the first person I saw about Jesus,
and he wants a Bible!”
Commitments to Christ are making a difference in lives
beyond the battlefield. One soldier said that both he and his
wife had been involved in adulterous relationships, and his wife
filed for separation just a week after he was deployed to the
Middle East. Broken, he came to Cook
for help.
Cook helped the man to understand his need for repentance. He prayed with the man and helped him to contact his wife. The couple have now recommitted their lives to Christ, and the soldier has been attending chapel services and growing spiritually. Cook plans to provide marriage counseling for them when the unit returns home. . . .
. . . Minsky said that during war, unbelieving soldiers tend to realize that they need God, while believers tend to draw closer to God than they have been before. “Some of my best ministry of God’s Word has been in deployment situations. . .,” Minsky said.
“Sometimes the most effective counseling a chaplain can do is to be there and to listen.”
Even in the midst of conflict, that’s exactly what military chaplains are doing.
- Decision, Faith On The Front Lines, May 2003, pp.12-14
Why am I sharing all this with you? Because I want to encourage you to walk! You see the Christian life is a walk, not a standstill! And you need to walk one step at a time and as you do, God will show you what the next step will be, what you should do next. How do you know? Because He speaks to your heart, He opens doors, He guides you in very natural ways and all we must do is follow Him.
Now before I close this morning, I want to spend a little time looking at a few verses that deal with a believers walk, because I believe it is that important to us. Philip would have never met the eunuch on the desert road if he didn’t take step one and go down to Gaza. Thus, this is vital for us to be fruitful, to see all that God has for us, one step at a time!
First of all in Ephesians 5:1-2 Paul tells us, “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” I think that this is so important for us to understand, that we walk in love, that we minister in love, that we have His love flowing from our lives. It is easy to walk but be angry, bitter, have the wrong motive and then is your walk according to Christ? Of course not! Is it leaving behind a sweet-smelling aroma? Of course not! We are to let His love flow in us and through us and that will only happen as we spend time with Him!
Can you imagine Philip coming upon this Ethiopian Eunuch and saying something like, “Smoking or non-smoking? Listen buddy, you took me away from a very fruitful ministry back in Samaria so I am going to make this simple, turn to Jesus or burn in Hell! What is your choice? Come on, I don’t have all day!” Not much love there, in fact there is anger because of where he is at. Many respond that way because they don’t see this as God’s hand, God’s calling, just an inconvenience! Do as Philip did, walk in love, His love!
Secondly, in Colossians 4:5-6 Paul tells us to “Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” In other words, we are to be wise as we walk, be aware of those around us that don’t know the Lord, and to utilize the time, the situation that God has placed us in, to redeem that time, to buy it up so that as you speak you are guided by the Holy Spirit and your words will bring conviction to their lives so they may turn to Jesus.
The thing is this, you need to know the Word of God, you can’t wait until you find yourself in a situation and then try to figure out what to say, what the Bible says regarding this issue. Philip was a man of the Word, he heard the Eunuch reading and he knew it was from Isaiah and not only that, he knew what the text was about so he could answer this eunuch and point this eunuch to Jesus Christ! We too must be men and women of the Word because the Holy Spirit will only bring to remembrance that which you have already read. You may not fully understand it at that point, but as you read it He will reveal it to you, as He did with Philip!
Thirdly, in Ephesians 5:15-17 we are told, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” As we walk we need to be careful, we need to watch where we are going, where we are walking, that is only wise. You see, what good is it to know that this is dangerous if you do it anyway? It is worthless. God tells us that we need to be careful walking, to be wise, and to redeem the time, why? Because the days we are living in are evil. We are to be a light to this world, we are the moral consciousness of this country as Christians because we adhere to a higher standard, the standards of God and thus, His morals never change, there is a standard, right is right and wrong is wrong, and thus, we are to shine! We need to be careful as we walk that we don’t place ourselves in situations that will put our light out, be wise, know what God’s will is for your life, don’t go where He has not called you to go!
In 3 John 3-4 we are told, “For I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” If you are not walking in the truth of God then you are meandering through life, you are being blown by the winds of doctrine of this world and we do see that in the church as people are involved in things that go contrary to God’s Word. You see, it is not just walking, it is walking in His truth. As I have said before, if you feel God is calling you to do something, but it goes contrary to what the Scriptures are saying, you are not hearing from God. Be careful, walk in His truth and not what you want to do. And I will say this, when you are walking in His truth, He will give you the desires of your heart because they are His desires! It is as the Psalmist said, “Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday.” Psalm 37:3-6.
Trust in the Lord, feed on His Word, trust in His faithfulness and as you do, as you delight yourself in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart because they will be His desires for you, your will conformed to His will! And He will bring it to pass, all you have to do is walk and He will shine in you and through you!
Lastly, in II Corinthians 5:7 we are told, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” Yes, it may not always seem right through our own human eyes as we look at things. We may even come up with better things or ways to do it, but once again, we must walk as God instructs us because His ways are the best, they will accomplish more than we could ever imagine!
The key of course is to keep walking, don’t stop! As you move forward, as you take step one, God will then show you step two and-so-on. It is not always easy because we don’t know how it will all work out, but that is where trust comes in, feeding on His faithfulness, which will help us to walk. As hard as it may be now, remember what He has done in the past, His faithfulness, and let that strengthen you for your present walk, the steps you are now taking.
You see, you are not going to know everything that is going to happen, you just need to trust in the Lord and walk. I wonder how many people have missed out on step number two, because they refused to take step number one! Don’t go down that path of refusing to walk because you will miss out on the blessings that God has for you as you walk.
Remember what Solomon said in Proverbs 3:5-8, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones.” If God tells you to go, don’t try to figure it all out, how He is going to do it, what He is going to do, just trust in Him and walk and see what He will do!