Going Where God Commands

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me now to the 8th chapter of Acts.
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We are continuing this week in our series entitled Beyond Our Borders.
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Our goal has been since the beginning of the year to look at how the church, the early church, gives us an example of evangelistic zeal.
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And we're reviewing Acts, not verse by verse, but sort of event by event, looking at how the events that formed the early church after the resurrection of Jesus Christ established for us a model of taking the gospel into all the world.
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We've already seen that the church in its early years, its early days, was overcoming obstacles.
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The first obstacle was the sanction given to Peter and to John.
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You are not to preach in the name of Jesus, and yet they continued to preach Jesus even though the leaders above them told them they were not to do that.
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So the first was sanction and then there was corruption, Ananias and Sapphira trying to bring an embezzlement situation into the church.
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And then there was division between the Hellenists and the Hebrews, and that tried, every way you turn, Satan is trying to bring the church down and trying to destroy it in whatever way he can.
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And finally, we see in chapters 6 and 7, the great persecution that began against the church, with Stephen falling as the first martyr.
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It was the death of Stephen that would become the watershed moment in the history of the church, because it was at his death that many believers were then dispersed from Jerusalem and were fleeing out into Judea and all the surrounding lands, and with them was going the gospel.
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So this terrible tragedy, one who was taken down in his prime, Stephen who was stoned to death, even though it was a tragedy, it was a triumph for the gospel because it was the impetus that led the people out of that one place, Jerusalem, and into the world.
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Well today we come to Acts chapter 8, where we see the ministry shift from focusing on Stephen to focusing on Philip.
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And what we're going to see is that Philip had a lot in common with Stephen.
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They were both called to be ministers or deacons in Acts chapter 6.
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They were chosen among the seven who were chosen.
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Philip was one of those, as was Stephen.
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They were both shown to be evangelists.
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They both had evangelistic zeal.
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They were preaching Jesus Christ.
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That was why Stephen was stoned.
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They were both known to do public signs and wonders also.
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And what's most striking is that we will see that they both had an integral part in taking the gospel outside of Jerusalem.
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It was Stephen's murder that would get them to go, and it was Philip who would lead the charge into a new area called Samaria.
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Stephen was the first martyr, but Philip was the first missionary, because he's the first to lead the charge to a new area, a place where the gospel had yet to be preached.
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In fact, Stephen is the first one that we see the title of evangelist, or one who is preaching the gospel outside, given in Acts chapter 8.
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And we have stressed from the beginning that that's what this whole series is about.
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We could certainly give lecture after lecture after lecture on Acts, and we could go through all of the historical aspects of what was going on in the history of the church, but the focus of this series is to focus on the evangelistic zeal to remind us all that we are all evangelists.
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We have all been given a charge to go out into the world and make disciples.
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So that's what this is about.
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That's why we're studying this, and that's why, if you will, we're taking great swaths of texts as we study, because I want us to see these men, I want us to see what they were doing, and I want us to catch the fire, if you will, catch the zeal that they had, so that we too will go out, we too will preach, and we too will see men and women come to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith.
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So today what we're going to do, we're going to read in kind of an odd way.
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We're going to read Acts 8, but we're only going to read a few verses.
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We're going to read verses 4 through 8, and then we're going to skip a whole section and read verse 26.
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The reason why is because next week I'm going to preach the middle part about Simon.
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I'm not going to deal with Simon this week, because there's a whole thing I want to deal with on him.
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But this week we're going to deal with just Philip's ministry in Samaria, and then as he's taken away from there to go and speak to one man, the Ethiopian eunuch.
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So let's stand together, we'll read Acts 8, and we're going to read 4 through 8, and then jump to verse 26.
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Verse 4 says, In that city, now jump down to verse 26, it says, Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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I pray that you'll give me today your Holy Spirit.
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For without him, my preaching will be in vain.
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I pray, O God, that you would keep me from error, and that you will open the hearts of your people to the truth.
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And Lord, if there be among us those who have not heard the gospel, that today they would hear and believe, and that through your Holy Spirit's ministry that they would be saved.
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We pray, O Lord, that you would glorify yourself ultimately in the preaching of your word, in Christ's name, Amen.
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Please be seated.
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The murder of Stephen changed everything for the church.
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If there were any half-hearted men in the congregation at that moment, they would have renounced their faith quickly.
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Whoa, if we're getting killed for this, we might want to back off a little.
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And those who were fully committed still didn't want to line up to be the next person in line to get those stones.
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So they moved away from where it was most dangerous into areas where the execution of judgment was not as swift.
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So we see in the beginning of Acts chapter 8, the follow-up to what has happened with Stephen, and this is the context of what we just read, and I just want to kind of reiterate the context.
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If you look up at chapter 8, verse 1, it said, And Saul approved of his execution.
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That actually probably would do better to be part of chapter 7, you know, the chapter divisions and all that didn't come until much later.
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This was not written with chapter divisions and verse divisions.
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If you think about it, that statement, and Saul was approving of his execution, is talking about Stephen's execution, which happened in the last chapter.
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But this also introduces to us a new age in the church because now we're introducing into us the new age of persecution.
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So this verse 1 sort of works as sort of like a hinge.
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It's saying, here's this death of this first martyr, and this guy Saul was approving of it, and as a result, here he is now emboldened to go out and do the work of persecution.
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And that's what we see in verses 2 and 3.
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It says, And there arose in those days a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem.
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And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
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The apostles stood fast.
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They stood where they were.
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They didn't leave.
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That's an interesting historical thing.
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They maintained the church in Jerusalem, even though under great persecution, the apostles stayed put.
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But many others left.
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Because of this persecution, this is driving them out.
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It's dispersing them out.
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And it says, Devout men buried Stephen.
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There's some debate there as to whether or not those are members of the church or whether or not those were pious Jews who were just not willing or consenting to the death of Stephen but were not yet Christians.
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Because it doesn't call them Christians, it simply calls them pious men.
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The idea they could be Jewish men.
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And that may have been one of the reasons why the disciples didn't leave, the apostles.
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Because they still see here possible converts that are still in the city.
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Men who are not on board with what the Sanhedrin is doing.
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Men who are not on board with this murderous activity of Saul.
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They're not on board with what he's doing.
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So there's still fish here yet to be caught.
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There's still men here potentially yet to be discipled.
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So we're going to stay under the threat of persecution and not leave.
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And it goes on to say that they took him out.
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They buried him.
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That was the custom.
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That was what was done.
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And they made lamentation over him.
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But Saul was ravaging the church.
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And that word ravaging means to cause great harm with intent to destroy.
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We know what ravaging is.
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We understand how that word works.
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And we understand what it means.
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It means the same in English as it did in Greek.
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To cause great destruction.
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And he was dragging off men and women and committing them to prison.
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My kids and I read this last night.
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And we were reminded of a friend of ours who was a Jew.
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Who his family was in the concentration camps there at Auschwitz and in Germany.
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In those areas.
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And he had recounted to my children the stories of being taken out of homes that his family had taught him.
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And being put into these concentration camps.
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And some of his family even having been murdered in those concentration camps.
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And they said, is that what it was like? Dad, yes.
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That's what it's like.
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These families who are wanting nothing more than simply to worship God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
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This man Saul is leading the charge.
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To take them out of their homes.
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And to imprison them for their faith.
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I mean it's hard for us to even imagine.
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But you know there's still people who live like that, right? Even today in Iraq and Afghanistan and places like that.
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There are places that they go and they put the letter N in Arabic on the house.
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And that letter N says it means Nazarene.
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And that represents a person who follows Jesus.
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And they mark the house.
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Why? Because this house has been marked for persecution.
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This house has been labeled Christian.
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So now their belongings are up for grabs.
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Their health, their prosperity is no more something that they can look forward to.
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They are marked men.
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They are marked women.
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And that's what we see here.
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The early church was a marked body.
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It was a marked people.
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And Saul was this man who was leading the charge.
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We'll see in a few weeks how God deals with him.
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Blessed God how He deals with him.
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But at this time in history, Saul is a terrorist for lack of a better term.
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He sees himself as a religious zealot.
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And that's what he is.
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He's zealous for his Judaism.
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And he's going out terrorizing the church.
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Taking men and women out of their homes.
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Putting them into prison.
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So that all leads us up to verse 4.
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It says, now those who were scattered...
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This is beautiful.
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Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.
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Now I don't know about you.
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To me that's amazing.
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Because these people are being scattered under threat of death.
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They're being scattered under threat of persecution.
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They just saw a guy get stoned to death for his faith.
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And instead of being quiet, they went out preaching the word.
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Think about how often we do not evangelize in our modern context.
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And we're safe.
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It is safe to do it.
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It is safe for you to go right up there into the little market center that we have.
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Not just a mile from the church.
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It would be safe for you to go up there and hand out gospel tracts.
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It would be safe for you to stand on that corner and preach the gospel.
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Yes, somebody may spit on you.
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Somebody may even pelt you with a tomato.
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But nobody's going to drag you down to the courthouse and stone you to death under the complete authority of the government.
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No one's going to do that.
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But that's what they had here.
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These people are under the threat of death and they're preaching.
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We're under the threat of what? Some social ostracism? And no, we just can't do it.
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I mean, think of how weak we have become.
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And how bold they were.
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They preached under the threat of prison and death.
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We don't preach under no threat at all.
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So it goes on now to verse 5.
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And we're reintroduced to this man named Philip.
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And what we see in verses 5-8 is Philip's ministry to the masses.
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Because Philip goes and starts a city ride crusade.
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It says, Philip went down to the city of Samaria.
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You'll notice in your Bible there when it talks about the city of Samaria.
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There's a little addendum down there.
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Some manuscripts only say a city.
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But we know that he went into Samaria.
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We know he's responsible for bringing.
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And this is a region.
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Not just a small city, but a region.
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And he proclaimed to them the Christ.
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That word proclaimed is keruso.
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It means to herald.
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It means to preach.
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He was preaching in the streets.
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He was preaching to the masses the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip.
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When they heard him and saw the signs that he did.
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His ministry was accompanied by the gift of signs.
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That was one of the things that God gave to the early church.
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To affirm that what they were saying was true.
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So he was given this ministry of gifts.
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He was able, it says in verse 7, to cast out unclean spirits.
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He was able to bring paralyzed people and lame people and heal them.
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So this gave extra credibility to what he was saying.
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Because no one had ever heard anything like this before.
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And here he is preaching this message.
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And he's given these signs to accompany the preaching of his message.
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And it says in verse 8, so there was much joy in the city.
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So here's this guy.
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Comes out of nowhere.
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He's preaching the gospel.
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Something they've never heard.
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They've never heard this message before.
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He's preaching to them.
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He's doing these signs.
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They believe him.
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And it says with one accord they welcomed him.
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And throughout the city there was joy.
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This is a huge revival.
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It's almost like what happened when Jonah went into Nineveh.
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That he went in and preached and from the top down there was revival.
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There was a belief among the people.
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And this is an amazing thing.
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It's amazing to me because of what happens next.
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Because as I said, we're going to skip a portion here.
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We're going to stop now at verse 9.
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Because verse 9 introduces a man by the name of Simon.
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And next week we're going to see that Simon brings one of the first instances of what we would call false faith.
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Or a person who's using the words but doesn't have the heart change.
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And we're going to talk about that next week.
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Because that's an issue that we need to consider.
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False faith or what we call false conversion.
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And I want to spend a whole week dealing with that.
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So we see that happen in the ministry of Philip.
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But in the midst of that there's still a whole city that's received the gospel and received it with joy.
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So while there was this one negative person.
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And the apostles come and deal with him.
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While there's this one negative thing.
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There's this great city wide revival going on.
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And then verse 26 amazes me.
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Every time I read it.
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Verse 26.
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Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip.
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Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.
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This is a desert place.
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And you might say.
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Pastor why does that amaze you? It amazes me for this.
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You've got a city wide campaign.
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Where people are being saved every day.
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And people are being saved from the top to the bottom.
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In this huge region.
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And God's going to take you out and put you over here by yourself nowhere.
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That's why we call this sermon.
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Going where God commands.
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Because I've got a feeling in my heart.
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That there had to have been at least some point at which Philip said.
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Wait a second.
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Wasn't I just right? I was at a place where there was many people.
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And many people being saved.
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And there was so much good work getting done.
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And now God's going to take me over here to this little nowhere.
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There's nothing.
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It's a desert meaning it's empty.
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It's nothing.
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It takes obedience to make that trip.
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It takes obedience on Philip's not to say.
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Well I wonder if that really was the Holy Spirit.
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Maybe it was that pasta I had last night.
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I'm real close to Italy.
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So maybe I had.
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Whatever.
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Maybe I just didn't read it right.
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I've got to put out three or four fleeces before I obey.
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No he just went.
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And that's when we get to the story of the Ethiopian eunuch.
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And many of you are familiar.
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This is one of the most told stories in the Bible.
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Of this man who is brought to faith by Philip.
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And I just want to read and make short commentary as we go.
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But starting in verse 27 it says.
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And he rose and went.
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There was no argument.
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There was no fussing.
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He just went.
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Philip goes.
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And there was an Ethiopian.
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By the way that was an area in Africa.
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It wasn't Ethiopia the nation we're thinking of today.
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It actually was a much larger area at that time.
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It was much of the African continent was considered Ethiopia.
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And so he was an Ethiopian.
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He was a eunuch.
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That is a person who was set aside by the king to work in the harem.
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That was a person who had been made unable to have a sexual relationship.
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Through a procedure which was done.
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And thus he was able to be in that.
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Working in that situation around the king's women if you will.
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Without having to have those desires.
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So he was a person who had been emasculated if you would.
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That was the meaning of that.
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And he was a court official of Candace.
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Candace is not the name of a specific person.
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Candace is a name of a type of person like we would say a pharaoh or a Caesar.
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Candace was the queen mother of Ethiopia.
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And he was a court official of this queen mother, queen of the Ethiopians.
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Who was in charge of all her treasure.
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He was the treasurer for this queen who was in charge of a large portion of the African continent.
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This guy is very important.
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That's what this text is trying to tell us.
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This man has authority and position where he is from.
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He had come to Jerusalem to worship.
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What does that tell us? Well that tells us that he is either a Jew from birth.
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Or that he is a proselyte to Judaism.
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Which means that he at some point become a Jew by virtue of having been converted.
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Some people believe he is a Gentile.
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I don't believe he is a Gentile.
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Let me tell you why.
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Because later in Acts, Cornelius is brought to faith.
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Cornelius is such a big deal because he is the first Gentile convert.
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And there is a big deal about that.
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I think that if this man were a Gentile something would be said about that.
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But it says he was gone to Jerusalem to worship.
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Which tells me he was probably a proselyte to Judaism.
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That he was a Jew by virtue of having been converted.
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And here he is having gone to Jerusalem to worship.
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Now he wouldn't have been able to go into the temple.
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Because Deuteronomy 23 says that no eunuch, no person who has been emasculated would be able to go into the temple.
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But he could still go and worship and participate in all the things that go on around there.
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So he was gone there to worship.
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Verse 28, And returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
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So not only did he go and worship, but he brought with him from there a scroll of the prophet.
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And this ain't like what we have today.
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They didn't have Lifeway Bookstore, Jerusalem, you know.
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They didn't have that.
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This would have been a very expensive thing.
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This would have been a very unique thing.
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It would have been handwritten.
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And would have been something that would have been a treasure to whoever had it.
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So here this man has a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
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And he's carrying it with him.
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And verse 29 says, And the Spirit said to Philip, Go over and join his chariot.
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So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet.
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And asked, Do you understand what you are reading? And he said, How can I unless someone guides me? That's a beautiful statement of humility.
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You know, a lot of people, if you ask them if they're reading the Bible, If you said, Hey, do you understand that? Of course I understand it.
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What are you trying to say? I'm not, you know.
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No, he didn't say that.
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He said, No, I don't have a clue.
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I really, I need somebody to teach me.
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I need somebody who understands this to guide me.
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And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
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Now, it doesn't tell us that Philip announced any of his credentials.
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Maybe he recognized that Philip was a Jew.
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Maybe he recognized that Philip, by asking that question, Had an understanding of it.
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And was trying to impose upon him an answer to his question.
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We don't know, but we know that he welcomed him on up.
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And in verse 32 it says, Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this, Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, And like a lamb before its shearer is silent, So he opens not his mouth.
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In his humiliation justice was denied him.
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Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.
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Now that is Isaiah 53.
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Isaiah 53.
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Of course it wasn't Isaiah 53 then, Because they didn't have chapters and verses.
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But what we know today is Isaiah 53 verses 7 and 8.
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Isaiah 53 is one of the most important messianic passages in the Old Testament.
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Telling us that the suffering servant would come.
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And that he would die for the sins of his people.
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And that by his stripes we would be healed.
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We know that passage.
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We hear it all the time.
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Used out of context, but we hear it.
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That passage about his stripes were healed.
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That's the passage that he's in.
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So this is a miracle y'all.
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It's a miracle of preparation.
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God takes this man from the many.
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He brings him to the one.
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He's got this man who's already at least believing the Jewish scriptures.
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He's holding the Jewish scriptures.
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And he just happens to be reading a specific passage.
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Which is one of the most powerful passages that relates to Jesus Christ.
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And he comes upon a man who believes in Jesus.
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And says, I don't know what it means.
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Tell me what it means.
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This is like somebody walking up to you and saying, I need to know Jesus.
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Can you tell me how? Yes.
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Everything is set up.
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It's hand given to Philip here.
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This opportunity.
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And the eunuch said, verse 34.
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And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this? About himself or someone else.
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Which is a great question.
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Because this is an exegetical question.
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He's asking, okay, the prophet wrote this about someone.
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Who? Wasn't that the first question we ask when we're studying the Bible? Who is it written about? Who is it written to and why? That's one of the first exegetical questions we can ask.
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It's the first part of hermeneutics.
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Misunderstanding context.
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He wants to know, who is this written to? Is he writing about himself? Is he writing about someone else? Verse 35.
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Then Philip opened his mouth.
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And beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.
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And as they were going along the road, they came to some water.
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And the eunuch said, See, here is water.
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What prevents me from being baptized? Now you'll notice if you have an ESV, there's no verse 37.
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But if you have a King James Bible, or if you have a New American Standard Bible, you'll notice there is a verse 37.
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Don't let that confuse you.
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Verse 37 is what we call a textual inundation.
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It's something that was added later.
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It's the statement of faith that normally accompanies baptism.
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It was added about the second century.
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And because it's part of the King James Bible, it has a verse number there.
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And I confuse people sometimes.
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I ask them, I say, hey, can you look up Acts 8, 37? And they'll go look and they'll notice it's not there and they get all confused.
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But if you want to know about textual variation, I don't have time to do it today, but last year I preached an entire message on why textual variants are important, why you should know about them.
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And this week, because I knew this was coming, I made some CDs.
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It's called Textual Variants in the Glory of God, and it's on the desk as you go out if you want one of those CDs, or you can find it online.
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But just know that this particular verse is not there, but the verse that's missing from the ESV says if you believe, you may.
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The question is, do you believe the Lord Jesus Christ? If you believe, you may.
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And that's what we would say to someone.
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That's the natural thing.
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If somebody came to me and said, can I be baptized? My first question, do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you received Him as your Savior? Yes.
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Well, the assumption here is that that's what this person believed.
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That's what this man, this eunuch believed.
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He believed because he was requesting baptism.
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Here is water.
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What prevents me from being baptized? The answer is nothing.
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Because your very desire to be baptized is a statement of your faith in Jesus Christ.
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You want to follow after Him.
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So it says in verse 38, and he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water.
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By the way, I have to make mention of this.
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Even John Calvin, who was not a person who immersed in baptism, said that this verse demonstrates that the mode of the early church was immersion.
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They went down into the water.
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They came back up out of the water.
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He didn't pull a jar and pour the water, but they went down in and came back out.
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So it's a demonstration that, and like I said, even Calvin, who was not one who immersed, said that this demonstrates that the mode of the early church was immersion, to put under the water.
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And they came up out of the water, and the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away.
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And the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing.
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Now verse 39 there seems to indicate that there is some sort of miracle that's going on here, because it says that when they came up out of the water, Philip was simply carried away.
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The word that is used there is sometimes used in other places talking about the rapture or the taking away of someone.
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Some people believe this is a miracle.
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Philip actually vanished from before where he was.
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I don't know that the text necessarily makes that claim, but I do know this.
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I do know that for some reason, the eunuch now no longer has Philip in his life, and that doesn't stop him.
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Because he goes on his way rejoicing.
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The man who preached in the gospel is now gone, and that doesn't mean...
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I've heard people say, well, if we get somebody saved, and we don't properly disciple them, how are we to know that they're going to be biblical Christians? Well, the reality is, we should be discipling people, but at the other side of the coin is this.
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When a person is genuinely saved, they're going to seek discipleship.
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They're going to seek that out.
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It's not something...
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We don't have to hold somebody's hand the whole time.
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They're going to want to follow after Christ.
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He's got the Scripture.
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He knows about Christ, and guess what? He goes into Ethiopia, and church history, not Scripture, but church history talks about the fact that there was actually a church established there and moved on to grow, and it probably came from this man.
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So we see.
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We see what God can do with short ministry.
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We don't know how long they were together, but we know they weren't together for very long in the grand scheme of things.
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But he knew enough to know who Christ was.
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He knew enough to want to be baptized.
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That's why I don't make people wait six months to be baptized or eight months to be baptized.
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If a person comes to me and wants to know the Lord Jesus Christ, as long as I confirm in my heart that this person wants to know Christ and wants to follow after Christ, I'm not going to make them wait six months or eight months.
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We're going to talk, and we're going to go through the Scripture.
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We're going to feel confident that you're saved, but we're not going to make you wait and wait and wait and wait.
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We're going to baptize you in accordance with your faith.
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They baptized on the day of Pentecost.
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This person was baptized on the day he became a believer.
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The whole idea of waiting six months, eight months, ten months.
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Some churches only baptize once a year.
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I don't agree with that.
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I think we baptize when people come to faith.
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So that's part and parcel where we get that.
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Now, verse 40 tells us something.
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It says, But Philip himself, or Philip found himself at Azittus.
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And as he passed through, he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
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Now, Caesarea is where he stops because if we go over to Acts 21, we see that when Luke and Paul are passing through Caesarea, they go to Philip's house and they stay with him.
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So it says he went to Caesarea.
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This becomes his base of operations and he establishes a church.
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So he is a traveling minister, but not forever.
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He travels until God tells him to stop.
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And when he stops at Caesarea, he establishes a church there and he lives there.
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And later on, missionaries come and stay with him.
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So that's just interesting to see that for a time he was a traveling missionary and then there came a time where he had a home church.
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And we see that here in the text.
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Now, let's get to our outline.
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Because all that was introduction.
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I know you hate it when I say that.
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All that was introduced, the outline.
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I think there's three things that we learn from this.
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There are three things that we learn, three examples that Philip gives us that we should apply to the ministry of evangelism.
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Number one, Philip was willing to go to an undesirable place and people.
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Philip was willing to go to an undesirable place and people group, rather.
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Now, what do I mean by that? Well, go all the way back up to when we first started.
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Where was the place that Philip went and did his ministry? Samaria.
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And there was a national disdain between the Jews and the Samaritans to the point at which if you remember the story of Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman, she was actually surprised.
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You, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan, for something to drink? Why are you even talking to me? We don't consult one another.
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We don't have conversation with one another.
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You're a Jew.
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I'm a Samaritan.
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You're a man.
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I'm a woman.
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There's a whole big, that whole John 4 thing.
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There's a whole social thing that Jesus steps over a big boundary there.
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John Stott said this.
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He said, It is hard for us to conceive the boldness of the step Philip took in preaching the gospel to the Samaritans.
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It's hard for us to understand it because we don't really understand these cultural, boundary differences that they had.
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But they had them.
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The Samaritans were not Jews, but they weren't Gentiles either.
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They were half and half, if you will.
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They had, because of what happened when Solomon died, there was a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom.
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The northern kingdom had been taken by Assyria in 722.
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After that, they never fully reestablished themselves, but some of those Jews intermarried with Gentiles and became the area called Samaria.
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And that area, those Samaritans were not accepted by either side.
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They were considered half-blooded and they were not appreciated or accepted by either people.
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So, these are the undesirables, if you will.
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And yet, Philip is going to them.
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And do you know why Philip went to Samaria? It's very simple.
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Philip did not see Samaritans.
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Philip saw souls.
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That's the difference.
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Philip saw people who were dying without Jesus Christ and that meant more to him than ethnic differences and cultural differences.
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There are so many places that we could go.
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There are so many people to whom we could go, yet we don't because we consider them to be undesirable.
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We allow social status, cultural differences, racial divides, and so many other things to keep us from talking to people because to us, for some reason, they are undesirable.
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Would you be willing to share your faith with a homeless person? Would you be willing to share your faith with somebody of a different social structure than your own? Would you be willing to share Christ with a person of a different ethnic background? Would you be willing to share the living water of Christ with a Muslim, with a Hindu, with a Buddhist, with someone who grew up differently than you do, who looks differently than you do, who makes less money than you do, who makes more money than you do? You see, often we get so caught up in these social structures, we get so strung up, I can only talk to somebody who is like me.
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You know, or at least you confess to know, those of you who are members of this church who are baptized believers, you know that apart from Christ, these people will die in their sins, and yet, because they are not like us, we don't feel like we can reach them.
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And you see, that's what Philip didn't allow.
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He didn't allow that to overcome his going.
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They're not like me.
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They're different than me.
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They're totally different.
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They're the outcasts.
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They're the most undesirable people in the world, but yet, to them, I will go.
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When it comes to the Gospel, there are no undesirable people.
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The Bible says that God has His elect in every tribe, tongue, nation, and people group.
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Every group.
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There are people who are among the elect and we are to go to them.
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Not expect them to come to us.
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They won't come to us.
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We've got to go to them.
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We've got to go to people who we might not be comfortable with.
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And yet, still, we go.
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So Philip gives us an example in that he went to an undesirable place and people.
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The second thing.
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Philip was willing to move from the many to the one.
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He was willing to move from the many to the one.
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Now, I have often thought about this passage as a preacher, as a pastor, because many men in the ministry that I know minister in small churches with the hopes of stepping up to bigger churches.
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Now, I say this not to condemn them, but I know of many pastors who start the ministry and the idea is this.
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Well, I'll start out with a church of 50, and then a church of 100 will call me, and then a church of 200 will call me, and then maybe a church of 500.
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And before I know it, I'll be in a church of 1,000 people and I'll have 100 member staff.
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And they look at ministry almost like a CEO looks at rising the corporate ladder.
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And if you think of Philip's ministry, it was the exact opposite.
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He was hugely influential in Samaria.
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He had a ministry which was affecting an entire region.
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In fact, next week we're going to see that the apostles were so interested in what he was doing, they left Jerusalem to come to Samaria to see what he was doing and to verify that what he was doing was a work of the Holy Spirit.
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Yet in the midst of this success, if you want to call it success, God takes him out, moves him over here to talk to one guy.
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He goes from leading a city-wide crusade to a single-person Bible study.
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That's a huge demotion if we think in terms of corporate thinking.
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It's like the leader of AT&T going to work for some mom-and-pop cell phone store.
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But that's the wrong way to think.
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But that's how we think.
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That's how corporate America has made its way into the church and what I call the evangelical industrial complex.
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It's become this huge mega thing, this corporate church, where the pastor, instead of seeking to be a shepherd to the people God gives him, has become someone who's looking to rise the ladder to some point at which he can then have underlings and people underneath him and he can establish himself as somewhat of the religious elite.
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Oh, I hate to hear that.
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The elite preachers.
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There are none.
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That's a foolish thing to say.
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This is where so many men fail.
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Do you know why God sent Philip to that desert road? Because there was a soul there that needed to be saved.
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And Philip was God's chosen man to save that soul.
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You know, one of the favorite stories I have recently, I heard this, comes from Paul Washer.
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And most of you know who Paul Washer is.
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I've introduced you to him in different scenarios, emails and stuff.
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Paul Washer is an evangelist with a group called HeartCry Ministries.
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Paul Washer went to Alaska to do an evangelistic preaching conference.
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While he was there, he was in a little church, about 20 people.
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This old man came in, very big man, lived out in the woods.
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Came up, sat on the front seat, was crying.
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He was very sad.
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And Washer explains it.
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When he finished, he went down and sat next to the man and he said, what's wrong? And he pulled out a thing and it was an x-ray.
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And he said, they just found cancer.
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They said, I have two weeks to live.
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And Paul Washer said, well, you know, what do you think? And he says, well, I don't know if I die, I don't know what's going to happen to me.
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And so Paul Washer started preaching the gospel to him.
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And he said, I canceled my plane ticket, I was supposed to leave the next day.
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But I stayed with him and I ministered to this one man and I preached to him and finally God used that time that I spent with him to bring him to Christ.
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And he finally realized that he had eternal life in Jesus Christ.
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He had never heard the gospel before that night.
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But that was the time that God had chosen to save that man.
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Now, that whole story is great.
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But let me tell you the part of that story that rings true for me that really got my heart.
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Paul Washer went to Alaska to preach to 20 people.
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That's what got my heart.
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Yeah, the story of the one man coming in.
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But you know what? If we did an evangelistic night here at the church and only 20 people showed up, we'd probably think that was a failure.
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He went all the way to Alaska.
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He got on a plane to fly to Alaska to preach to 20 people.
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Do we realize, beloved, how important it is to God to preach to even one soul? And that's why that story really affects my heart.
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Because yes, the story of that man being saved was beautiful.
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But the story of a man willing to board a plane just to go preach to 20 people, that to me is just as beautiful.
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We must keep in mind that no matter the size of the sphere of influence that God has given us, we are to minister within that sphere with everything that we have.
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Whether we're ministering to 3 people or 3,000 people, whatever the sphere of influence God has given to us, we minister with all that we have.
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Finally and thirdly, Philip maintained his passion wherever God placed him.
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Philip maintained his passion wherever God placed him.
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When he was in Samaria, he had passion for the masses.
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When he was on that desert road toward Gaza, he had compassion for the one.
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When he was then taken away from there to Azotthos and other cities, he preached the Gospel.
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And when he finally made his home in Caesarea, he lived there, made a church there, established a home there.
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And by the time chapter 21 comes, he's got a home that's big enough and able enough to support missionaries who come through.
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He never lost his passion.
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Beloved, do we have that same passion? Do we have the same drive to get up and leave home for just the reason of bringing the Gospel to another person? Do we leave our house in the morning wondering and praying about who God is going to place in our path today that we might share the Gospel with today? Are we ready to go wherever the Spirit of God sends us? And are we passionate about the Gospel? Beloved, I think that is the question that we have to end with today.
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Are we passionate about the Gospel? If we're going about our lives with no desire to reach the lost, if we spend our lives with no compassion for those around us who are perishing without Christ, if we give no thought to our commission from Christ to share the Gospel with every soul, not only are we insincere about our claims to be followers of Jesus Christ, but we're also disobedient servants.
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And here's the hardest reality we all must face.
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Christ has commanded us to be evangelists.
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We either passionately seek to obey that commandment, or we live consistently in rebellion against Him.
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And beloved, in case you don't realize it, I want to spell it out as clear as I can, consistent rebellion toward a command of God is sin.
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So we are either living as evangelists for the Kingdom, or we are living in perpetual, unrepentant sin.
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God has placed you somewhere to be an evangelist for His Kingdom.
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He may even be calling you to go somewhere else.
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That's why the title is Going Where God Commands.
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You may be being called right now to go somewhere else.
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Some of you may be being called to missions overseas.
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I don't know.
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Some of you may be being called to be missionaries in this country.
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There are places in the American continent, in North America, where there is not the gospel being preached, and maybe God is calling you to that.
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And some may be being called to missions in this community.
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But whatever situation you are in, I will tell you what God is not calling you to.
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God is not calling you to be a silent spectator.
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Every one of us is an evangelist, and every one of us is a missionary somehow and in some way.
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Whether it be to the many, or whether it be to the few, I pray that God would inject within our hearts a desire to fulfill the call that each of us has been given.
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Let's pray.
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Father in Heaven, I thank You for the call to evangelism.
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I thank You that You've called us to be ambassadors for Christ.
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You making Your appeal through us as we go out giving people the gospel.
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Embolden us, Father.
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Move on us.
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Help us to desire ever more to follow after You.
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Make us like Philip, willing to go wherever You call.
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Willing to reach out to the lost, and to be heralds of the gospel in whatever context You place us.
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We thank You, Lord, for the truth.
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I pray You would sanctify us by it.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.