Acts 9

Recap:

Alright this morning we find ourselves going through the book of Acts…

So far on this journey we have seen the ascension of Jesus Christ to the right hand of the Father…

The church born as the Holy Spirit fills the believers…

and then as the Holy Spirit is at work in and through the believers we see…

God changing them from the inside out to look more like Jesus

emboldening, empowering, and equipping the believers

And then we see the believers ultimately take those changes made by the spirit and they are now able to use it to spread the good news of the gospel where ever they are…

and so the gospel spreads like wildfire throughout jerusalem…

and the Jewish religious leaders don’t like it…

especially a man by the name of Saul… and the leaders end up stoning a faithful believer named Stephen as Saul looks on with approval.

and that begins a great wave of persecution against the church…

Christians are seized and dragged off to prison, brought before councils, beaten and murdered…

And so many Christians begin to flee to the surrounding region of Judea and Samaria…

but those believers do not let fear consume them, and they continue preaching the good new… now causing the gospel to spread further and greater than it ever had before…

from there the Bible pivots and looks at the life of one of those people spreading the good news in Samaria…

a man named Philip…

Specifically Phillip the evangelist…

And this Philip we noted was a man who was not afraid to preach the gospel…

and so there were three different lessons we learned from his life about preaching the gospel… from Acts chpater 8…

1. Preaching the gospel requires obedience

Philip was faithful to answer the call of God to go to the road to Gaza

2. Preaching the gospel requires being led by the Spirit

and in order to be led by the spirit we must first be…

a. filled with the Spirit

b. Sensitive to the Spirit

and c. Obedient to the Spirit

3. Preaching the gospel requires perspective

Philip was met with the intimidating task of preaching to an Ethiopian eunuch of great authority

and yet Philip was able to without wavering because he feared God more than man

4. Preaching the gospel requires being guided

The Eunuch asks Philip to guide him in understanding the scriptures

But before we can guide someone we must first be guided!

as we read the Bible on a personal basis and study it for ourselves, it is then that the Lord gives us the understanding and example that we need in order to lead someone else into truth regarding the scriptures.

Now as we continue today into chapter 9 we leave Philip preaching the gospel in Cesarea

and now we hone in on a familiar character from chapter 7 and 8…

Saul of Tarsus! And we see something very amazing happening to this pharisee who was hunting down christians

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Pray.