What Hinders Me
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Offering
James 1:22 “22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
James 1:23 “23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;”
James 1:24 “24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.”
James 1:24
Main Message
We are going to speak of 1 or 3 important Gentile conversions in the book of Acts . Non Jewish conversions to Christianity,
When we think about conversions maybe we think about moving from one system of thinking to the next.
Or we think about indoctrination. You are just being pumped with teaching to the point where your world view changes.
But conversion is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that happens one you believe in Christ as your personal Savior.
Titus 3:5 “5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,”
26 Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is desert.
Phillip was leading this great revival in Samaria, people where being healed, there was great joy, unclean spirits where coming out of those who were possessed. Things where happening. Now God called him to leave this vibrant revival to go to one man. 50 miles south to The Ethiopian Eunuch.
-How many of us are willing to leave the exciting thing to follow the will of God.
-Willing to leave the praise of man to receive praise of God.
John 12:43 “43 for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”
Personal ambition and empire building are hindering the spread of the gospel.
John Stott
27 So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship,
So Phillip listens to the angel of the Lord and sees a man of Ethiopia
He was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, an official in charge of the queen’s treasury.
He was a man of great authority.
A proper title of this Ethiopian would be “Minister of Finance”.
Ethiopian was allot larger then it is today it was actually in modern day Sudan.
Who would have thought that Phillip on the road to his destination would run accord someone of great prestige. But it was the Spirit leading him.
According to the Yale Anchor Bible “Ethiopians used to be called the “land of the burnt skins I.E. dakrskins.”
We see that mentioned in Jer. 13:23
23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.
So theres a ethnic divide or barrier hear.
Some of you are possibly asking why does it matter about his ethnicity. Well ask God about that because its in the Bible.
Not only was there an ethic hinderance there was also a spiritual one.
1 “He who is emasculated by crushing or mutilation shall not enter the assembly of the Lord.
A Eunuch was castrated so that forbade him for coming in the temple. He could stand on the outside but could come in.
28 was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.
No coincidence he was reading Isaiah, the book of Isaiah offers the greatest hope for Eunuchs.
3 Do not let the son of the foreigner Who has joined himself to the Lord Speak, saying, “The Lord has utterly separated me from His people”; Nor let the eunuch say, “Here I am, a dry tree.”
4 For thus says the Lord: “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, And choose what pleases Me, And hold fast My covenant,
5 Even to them I will give in My house And within My walls a place and a name Better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name That shall not be cut off.
6 “Also the sons of the foreigner Who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, And to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants— Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, And holds fast My covenant—
7 Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices Will be accepted on My altar; For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
8 The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, “Yet I will gather to him Others besides those who are gathered to him.”
- God said He will give the Eunuch a name better then sons and daughters.
-Give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.
He will make them joyful in the house of prayer.
-God’s house has always been a house of prayer for all nations !
But little did the eunuch know that he was about to experience the fulfillment of those promises. And little did Philip know his own role in their fulfillment.
29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.”
The Spirit of God is leading Philip the whole way.
Sometimes we wonder why we are so frustrated in our lives is because we are doing good things without God.
We lack being Spirit led.
Trusting Jesus for my life. Trusting Him.
The Spirit leading is very clear for unorthodox and so not you.
Spirit led is so not you.
Growing up I wanted be an astrophysicist . I loved science and the stars and nature. But life happened haha . Few years later I’m sitting at the Library at John Hopkins seeing all these students studying for there future and I’m sitting here studying for my ordination. and I told myself I wish I stuck to my dream of going to school for astrophysics. And I called a Pastor and told him how I was feeling and he told me God called you to Pastor the Astrophysicist. He called you to Pastor those college students . Instead of you studying the start called called me to learn of the One who created them!
30 So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.
I was preaching at the church in Indiana and in the middle of message a guy yelled out “I don’t understand haha.”
In 5 seconds I started to question my sermon, started to question did God actually call me to preach . Started to question the existence of God lol . Started question life am I even real lol haha
Then I realized Jesus was difficult to understand at times. And the Apostle Pauls letters where difficult to understand.
And you have this Ethiopian Eunuch having difficulty understanding the scriptures .
The passage he’s referring to allot of Jesus scholars wrestled with it too.
32 The place in the Scripture which he read was this: “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
33 In His humiliation His justice was taken away, And who will declare His generation? For His life is taken from the earth.”
34 So the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?”
35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.
36 Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?”
37 Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
Contemporary Jews debated about whether the prophet was speaking of his own suffering or of that of the nation as a whole or of the Messiah.
Most striking of all, of course, is that the eunuch was reading from the servant psalms of Isaiah, the Old Testament texts that point most clearly to the suffering death of Christ. What a perfect introduction for Philip to share the gospel!
This was surely no mere coincidence. It is further evidence of the Spirit’s activity in the whole incident.
7 You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
The reality of it is we all are this Ethiopian Eunuchs
God enables you He doesn’t hinder you.
It is not our littleness that hinders Christ; but our bigness. It is not our weakness that hinders Christ; it is our strength. It is not our darkness that hinders Christ; it is our supposed light that holds back his hand.3
R. Kent Hughes