What Prevents Me?

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a privilege to share the Word of God in truth and love with the saints of Durbin Memorial Baptist Church this morning. Our church exists by grace, for glory, in love.

Man I enjoyed the few days of beautiful weather we had this past week. My whole family got to go on a glorious 6 minute walk before Aiden-Rey decided he didn’t want to walk any more and we went home. I took a look at the 10 day forecast earlier this week and it looks like we can hopefully expect some more good days of weather in the near future.

But there is a fearsome thought that comes with the weather seemingly warming up… I’m gonna have to mow the grass soon.

Imagine this scenario, the grass has been growing like crazy, I keep telling Cassidy all week that I’m going to mow the grass on Saturday. Saturday finally comes around, its now the end of the day, and the grass never gets mowed. Cassidy then asks me, “What happened? Why didn’t you mow the grass today like you said you would?”

I respond, “Well, I was going to, but then I saw a cloud in the sky, and I thought it might rain.”

She says, “But it never even got dark out, it didn’t rain at all today.”

I say, “Yeah, but I didn’t want to get started and then have to stop halfway through if more clouds came.”

She says, “So you just didn’t do it at all?”

I say, “Exactly! Plus I read somewhere that freshly cut grass attracts bugs. I know you don’t like bugs around the house so I didn’t want to risk it.”

Now, I grant you, those are some pretty bad excuses. But when we don’t want to do something we can be pretty good at coming up with bad excuses.

When it comes to cutting our grass we can usually get away with an extra day or two before someone calls the city or worse, the HOA, on us. Making excuses may not be a big deal. But there comes a time when we have to put away excuses and do the job that is our responsibility to accomplish. One of the responsibilities we often overlook, and I’m saying this as a guilty man myself, is our responsibility to share the gospel.

Think about these words from the gospel of Matthew for a moment:

Matthew 9:36–38 ESV

36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Jesus looks to the masses during His earthly ministry, He sees their need for a Savior, He has compassion on them. And Jesus looks to His followers and says the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. In light of this reality, pray that more would be sent out to work in the Lord’s Harvest.

When we look at that passage in the greater context of the New Testament, we come to see that God’s primary method of growing the Kingdom is calling the disciples, the believers in Jesus as Lord, to be harvesters, proclaimers of the gospel to the lost world who on their own are harassed and helpless, walking aimlessly without their shepherd.

This means that we are called by God to share the gospel! It is a responsibility that has been entrusted to all of us who know Christ Jesus as Lord.

But our general issue is that we treat this responsibility that has been entrusted to us as flippantly as we do mowing the lawn!

With this in mind, open your Bibles if you have not already to Acts 8. This morning we will be finishing out the chapter and looking at the great joy there is in following the Lord’s guidance and command to share the gospel with others.

As you’re turning there I want to bring up something we passed over a couple weeks ago from Acts 8:4. There we read, “Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.” If you remember back to that passage, Christians had been scattered from Jerusalem because of persecution. Then they go about to various places “preaching the Word” as we read. What I want to point out for us is that a hyper literal translation of that verse would be, “they went about ‘GOSPELIZING’ the word.” Now gospelizing isn’t a word you will find in the dictionary, but it is an accurate presentation of what these scattered Christians were doing. And I LOVE this word. Why? Because I think in our context we associate preaching with preachers. When we hear preaching the Word we think that this a duty reserved for those who fill the pulpit on Sunday morning. But that is not the case. If you know Christ, then you, yes you, ought to be “gospelizing” everywhere you go. It doesn’t take three points and a poem to be gospelizing. It is simply looking for and seeing opportunities to tell other people what Jesus Christ has done for you and can do for them.

Where we’re at in the book of Acts, we’ve been looking at Philip’s mission in Samaria after being driven out of Jerusalem. Reminder that Philip was just a regular guy with a desire to follow God. He wasn’t an apostle. He served the physical needs in the church then went out and shared the gospel. Last week, we saw him addressing the crowds in Samaria, today we will see a more interpersonal interaction Philip had and what we can learn about gospelizing in our own lives. Begin with me in verse 26.

Acts 8:26–29 ESV

26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.”

Follow the Spirit

Let’s break down whats happening here and then get into application for us today.

We are seeing Philip willingly and obedient leave the joyous scene of the church booming in Samaria to follow what the Lord would have him do somewhere on the road between Jerusalem and Gaza, a desert place. When we really think about this, it’s pretty incredible and contrary to our natural inclinations. Philip had been driven out of Jerusalem and then found an amazing respite in Samaria. Things were good! The church has been confirmed by the apostles, the people are believing, miracles abound! Then the Holy Spirit tells Philip to leave that good place and go to the desert. I think that most of us would say, “Uhhh God, you sure about that? I think I’d like to stay here.” Philip could probably have thought of some good excuses.

“But God, the church needs me here.”

“But God, that guy Simon the magician is hanging around and causing trouble. I need to keep him in check.”

“But God, I don’t do well in the desert.”

“But God, this place I’m at is just too good to leave right now.”

The list goes on and on. Any Christian would enjoy the atmosphere that God provided in Samaria in the earlier verses of Acts 8. Not all of us would leave such a place. And yet, Philip does. And as he does, he would walk through the desert area and meet the Ethiopian Eunuch.

We’re given some information about the about the Ethiopian eunuch. He was a court official from Ethiopia, thus he held a level of importance and influence. We even see that he was in charge of all the queens treasure. He had gone to Jerusalem to worship. This means that he was likely a jewish proselyte, meaning a convert to Judaism. We can gather that this man revered the God of Israel, however, though we can assume that he enjoyed his trip to Jerusalem, it is important to note that he would never have been able to experience full community and assimilation with the people in the temple because he was a eunuch. He could visit the temple and worship from a close distance, but he would not have been allowed entry to the temple. So here he is now on his way back to Ethiopia, reading the book of Isaiah, when he crosses paths with Philip.

Before we get into the contents of their conversation, I want to make some points of application in what we can learn from Philip’s willingness to leave Samaria and interact with this man here on the road.

The first thing to note is Philip’s obedience. We’ve already seen that he would have had good practical reason to make excuses and stay in Samaria. Philip, regular, ole dude Philip. Obedient, saintly Philip, was obedient to the call the Lord had for him. He went where the Lord led and didn’t make excuses. We can contrast Philip with the Old Testament Prophet, Jonah. Jonah was giving a call from God to go and preach to the Israelites sworn enemies the Ninevites. Jonah’s arrogant ethnocentrism made him a reluctant missionary. He ran from God’s command and ended up in the belly of a big fish before finally going to give a half-hearted message to a people that repented despite the prophet’s reluctancy. Now the glorious reality is that in both the case of Philip and of Jonah, God would accomplish His glorious purpose. The Word would be received. But the unfortunate reality is that we are more like Jonah than Philip. We find it difficult to love, engage, and share with people who come from different backgrounds than our own. In our text this morning, Philip engages an Ethiopian eunuch. Someone from a completely different cultural background and someone who was not allowed into the full assembly of the temple. That was more than enough for Philip to rationalize in his mind not engaging this gentleman. But the opportunity to gospelize supersedes rationality. Church, we must grow in not only our love for others, loving them so much that we are willing to share the gospel with them, but we must also grow in our love of God, that we would love Him so much that we will follow His command to share the gospel even when we could rationalize a reason not to. God will never be disappointed in a earnest attempt to love others by sharing the gospel, by you being a gospelizing person.

Philip was obedient to the Spirit. He went where God led him. He knew Christ as His own Savior and was willing to share that with others. The next application here is a truth we need to internalize. The truth is God uses people—dedicated people, men and women, just like you and me—those who obey the Spirit, God uses to accomplish His glorious plan for redemption. What’s interesting to me is that the Ethiopian Eunuch was leaving Jerusalem. He was leaving home base for the Christian church. Remember in the earlier part of the chapter, the apostles stay in Jerusalem, so even though persecution had come down upon the Christians in Jerusalem, but the A-team, if you would, was still there. It’s interesting to me then, that the Ethiopian Eunuch didn’t hear the gospel from an apostle or any of the remaining disciples while he was visiting Jerusalem. Rather, God orchestrated this interaction to happen on the road with a faithful follower, Philip. This is a reminder much like we see all throughout Scripture that God uses regular people to accomplish His plans. This is a blessing to my own heart and I hope to your’s, because if you’re like me, I don’t think I’m very special. I can be a bumbling idiot a lot of time. And yet God allows a big dummy like me to share the gospel and tell others of His goodness! The same is true for you! And no, I’m not calling you a dummy, what I’m saying is that even if you don’t think especially highly of yourself, your God can use you for His glorious plan! Rejoice in this truth! Follow God’s Word, yield to His Spirit and share Jesus without fear.

Which leads us to the last aspect of this section in our passage we need to address. We see something spectacular occur in these verses. First an angel of the Lord talks to Philip and tells him the exact direction he needed to go. Then where we paused in verse 29, the Holy Spirit talks to Philip and says to get in the chariot. This begs the question, should we expect to hear audible, specific directions from the Holy Spirit?

Honestly, this is a difficult question to answer. In one regard, the idea of “God spoke to me” and said ______. Is often exaggerated and abused. I don’t know how many times I heard at the Christian college I attended that God “told” the boyfriend to break up with the girlfriend. Did God also tell you start courting the more new girl in your history class before you officially broke it off with your current girlfriend? I don’t think so. Even worse there is a litany of false teachers who will claim to have some divine revelation that God told them to buy that jet plane or have destitute people fund their lavish lifestyles.

However, I also think that we would be selling the Holy Spirit short if we were to deny any sort of leading and influence in our lives. Pastor Martin Lloyd Jones, who was far from any sort of manipulative charismatic said this:

Here again is a most extraordinary subject, and indeed a very fascinating one, and, from many angles, a most glorious one. There is no question but that God’s people can look for and expect “leadings,” “guidance,” “indications of what they are meant to do.” There are many examples of this in the Scriptures [including Philip the Evangelist here in Acts 8]. Now there are leadings such as that.… If you read the history of the saints, God’s people throughout the centuries and especially the history of revivals, you will find that this is something which is perfectly clear and definite—men have been told by the Holy Spirit to do something; they knew it was the Holy Spirit speaking to them, and it transpired that it obviously was his leading. It seems clear to me that if we deny such a possibility we are again guilty of quenching the Spirit.

I do want to offer some caution here. The reality that the Holy Spirit is our guide is not an excuse to pawn off your personal decisions and inclinations on God. If you “feel led” to do something you can only be certain that is from God if it is is accordance with God’s Word. God is not calling you to leave your wife with whom He has brought you together with in the covenant of marriage. God is calling you to go deeper in His Word. God is calling you to encourage your brother and sisters in the church. God is calling you to death the sin that is in you, not multiply it.

And when we think about this in the context of gospelizing, as we are seeing in our text this morning, God is leading you to share the gospel with others around you. But Pastor Brad, I haven’t heard God telling me to go down the road and get in the chariot with someone like Philip here. Well, let me say this clearly. You don’t need to “feel led” or “hear a voice” to share the gospel before you do so. God has given you the Great Commission to obey. You have all the license you need to go every day gospelizing your home, your neighborhood, your workplace, and your marketplace. We pray consistently that God would make His will known for us, that we would see how His Hand and Spirit are guiding our lives, we look for times in which it is abundantly clear that the Spirit is prompting us to share, but you will never be in the wrong sincerely sharing the gospel.

Let’s now look at conversation between Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch.

Acts 8:30–35 ESV

30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 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. 33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” 34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.

Being Prepared

So as we have focussed on thus far, Philip obediently follows the Spirit and engages with the Ethiopian Eunuch. The man is reading through Isaiah, specifically Isaiah 53:7-8. The passage is describing a man that would be beaten unjustly. The surrounding passage describes the Suffering Servant that would be pierced for the transgressions of others, crushed for their iniquities, the one whom God allows to be an offering so that all who belong to this Man would be saved and have their days prolonged. This is a beautiful yet heart-wrenching passage. And the Ethiopian Eunuch is rightly overwhelmed trying to wrap his head around its meaning. He says to Philip, “Who is this Man? Who is this passage about?” I can only imagine that Philip had a hint of a smile on his face, cracks his knuckles, and says let’s do this, as he walks this man through the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to pay the cost of sin for all who believe in Him.

Faith comes by hearing the Word of God and Philip has been given an evangelistic lay-up to start right with the Word of God in Isaiah and go straight to Christ the Savior. He begins where the man is and explains all that Christ did to accomplish Salvation on our behalf.

I want to point out one reminder and one application from this portion of our passage.

The reminder for us all is that God’s method for winning others to Christ ultimately does not depend on organizational machinery, wordly, attractions, or high-powered promotion. Listen, I want our church to be a place where people to be. I want you to want to be here. When you’re here, I want to build you up, encourage you, and equip you to go out in the world and be a beacon of Christ’s light. I want to share the gospel in its entirety and implore others to be reconciled to God the Father through faith in the Son. I want the Holy Spirit to dwell in us richly and produce a peace amongst us that surpasses all normal reasoning. But ultimately, if we want to be a faithful, God-honoring gathering of believers, we must recognize that the God-given work of sharing the gospel with a world that so desperately needs to understand it, is primarily accomplished outside of these walls and without any of the pomp and circumstance, guitars and hymns, or powerpoint and pews. When it comes down to it, God’s plan for saving a lost soul is beautifully simple. A sinner saved by grace explains to another sinner what the Lord has done on our behalf. If you know the Lord, then you are uniquely equipped and called to share with others what the Lord has done for you. Let this be a reminder for us all that God has called us to share with others the good news of Christ. To be a gospelizing people.

Now let’s think about the application of this portion of our passage.

The application is simple. Be prepared. Philip was able to seize this opportunity to share the gospel because he was already familiar with this passage of Isaiah and grounded in how Scripture points to Christ. I don’t want to speak beyond Scripture, and this is not explicitly stated here, but I do find it at least interesting that the author of Acts notes that the Spirit led Philip to this location for this interaction, but there is no mention that the Spirit was telling Philip exactly what to say. I’m not suggesting that the Holy Spirit left Philip nor that the Spirit wasn’t involved in the interaction at this point. But rather, I do think this highlights that Philip had a personal and practiced knowledge of God’s Word that came through a dedication to God’s Word. Philip was prepared to drive this conversation to the cross of Christ because he was well versed in the Word of God. We, too, can be prepared for the opportunities God gives us to share His Word by being in the Word now. I’ve shared this before but when church members are surveyed on why they don’t share the gospel with more people, they say its because they feel like they don’t know enough. I think in many cases that is an excuse because there will always be more to learn, but if it is sincere, if you genuinely don’t feel like you know enough to share the gospel, then you better lift a prayer of praise right now and thank the Lord that He has placed you in this place in this time. Not only am I personally willing and desiring to teach you how to share the gospel, but you are living in a time in which you have more access to God’s Word then ever before in history. If you recognize that you don’t know enough to share God’s Word, then the next question is do you care enough to do something about it?! Study the Word! Pray to God for guidance, confidence, and wisdom. Learning God’s Word has never been more accessible. Church, if we are to be a gospelizing people, we must be a prepared people. So be prepared! Dive in the Word!

So thus far in our text Philip has followed the Spirit and shown that he was prepared. Let’s see how this scene concludes.

Acts 8:36–40 ESV

36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

What prevents me?

The Ethiopian Eunuch has come to see that Christ is King and he wants to make that known by following the Lord’s command in baptism. Philip is called away to ministry elsewhere and the treasurer goes on his way rejoicing. If we think back to the beginning of the chapter we see that great joy comes with regeneration in Christ. Joy that the sin that once defined the sinner has been washed clean, a joy in understanding that the Son of God loved you enough to be the suffering servant, to be stricken for your iniquities so that you could enjoy fullness of life. Joy abounds.

I love thinking about how excited the Ethiopian Eunuch must have been as he had just received the good news of Christ, hearing that He is the Lord, that the Lord has commanded those who believe in Him to be baptized, then the treasurer looks over as the chariot is riding down the road and he sees a small body of water! Look at the end of verse 36 again, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” in other words, “LOOK WATER! SHOULDN’T I DO WHAT THE LORD HAS COMMANDED ME TO DO?”

What we really ought to note in this, is that both Philip throughout our passage and now the Ethiopian, they are both showing the proper behavior of being excitedly obedient to follow the Lord! Philip was obedient in evangelism, the Ethiopian in baptism. Church, may we adopt this same attitude!

Have you followed the Lord in Baptism? If not, ask yourself, what prevents me?!

Have you shared the gospel with your neighbor? If not, ask yourself, what prevents me?!

Have you encouraged your brothers or sisters in the church? What prevents me?

Have you prayed to the Lord lately? What prevents me?

Have you dwelled and memorized God’s Word? What prevents me?

Have you been gospelizing your life everywhere you go? What prevents me?

Have you repented of your sins and seen the beauty of Christ? WHAT PREVENTS ME?

I can tell you that we can be really good at coming up with excuses but ultimately they fall short. There’s no good excuse for not being joyfully obedient to the one who lived and died and rose again to save your soul and seal you for glory!

And when we live obediently beautiful things happen. When the Ethiopian was baptized all of his crew traveling with him saw what happened. Don't you imagine that they had a lot of questions for what just went down? "What were you and that stranger doing?" "Why did you get dunked under the water?" "What is the meaning of all this excitement and then stopping to enter the water?" He would have been able to use his obedience as a testimony and opportunity to tell others about his God. The same is true for us!

When we are obedient to God’s Word, living in the Spirit, and prepared in the Word, beautiful things happen. There will be a harvest.

So as we conclude this morning, ask yourself, “What prevents me?” take whatever excuse comes to mind, throw it out the window, and be obedient to the God of salvation.

If you desire assistance in that, that is why this church exists. Come forrward during this hymn of response. Let’s pray together. Don’t let some excuse hinder you any longer. Joyfully and obedient follow the Lord.

Respond today.

Let’s pray.