God's Gracious Pursuit (Part 2)
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Read Luke 15:4-7, Acts 8:26-40
We are lost, distant, blind, dead and wavering sinners.
Only the relentless pursuing grace of God can save us.
He saves us sinners through His sending, drawing, illuminating, regenerating and carrying love.
Last week we saw how He sent Philip after one Ethiopian Eunuch on a desert road and how God has sent His Word, His Son and His Spirit and is sending the gospel out through His people, the church. We all have a part in both sending and being sent as ambassadors for Christ where we are, as Christ sends us that lost sinners may be found in Him.
Today we see, from Acts 8:26-40 how God lovingly draws people to Himself, in Jesus Christ, His Son.
God reveals Himself to us as a God who lovingly draws and leads His children
The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying,
“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.
Drawn - seize, carry off, pull, drag, stretch, draw out
Ex. Shepherd leading the lost sheep to the fold or a soldier, dragging his injured comrade to safety
drawn with lovingkindness - his faithful care and mercy
Note the reason for His drawing, leading care - love
His love for His children is everlasting - while men waiver and fail, God is steadfast in His love for His own. He will not abandon, nor will ever He violate His word or neglect His promises.
Intimate care and affection, characterized by the most intimate relationships
Friend (ex. Moses)
Husband to His wife
Father, or mother to their child
Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them in My arms;
But they did not know that I healed them.
I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love,
And I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws;
And I bent down and fed them.
Hosea - some of the most intimate and powerful imagery in portraying God’s love, faithfulness and patient kindness towards His people
Israel is the wondering, adulterous, wife of harlotry who violates the covenant and turns her back to her husband and his loving provision in exchange for sinful filth and squalor
In this text, he describes His relationship as a father, or herdsman
Gently, patiently steadying his toddler and teaching him to walk
taking them up in His loving arms
healing their ailments and tending to their wounds
then the imagery changes to one leading his livestock
connected to them as by a rope, leading, not letting go
lifts the yoke, removes the bridle, the burden and frees them
providing for them, feeding them, filling them
And yet, in verse 5-6 we see that they will be judged in their stubborn refusal and rejection of the God who loves them.
They would be drawn by ropes, but not the loving, gentle ropes depicted here
They would be carried off, but not in the compassionate leading of their God
and still, he would be faithful and not utterly let them go, but instead preserve and restore them to Himself and through them bring about the culmination of His redemptive plan in sending His Son to die for their sins and set them free!
Through Jesus: the faithless bride would be purified, the rebellious child be restored
Through Christ, those who were without mercy would receive it, and those who were not His people would be called His people. (Enter the Ethiopian Eunuch)
God’s drawing of the Eunuch
Somewhere along the line God had sparked a longing in this man - v.27 “he had come to Jerusalem to worship”
This man was seeking to worship the One True God - A God-Fearer - traveled far to worship!
Was God seeking Him, or was He seeking God? He was seeking God because God was seeking Him!
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
none who seeks God - Scripture teaches that the fallen state of man is such that we, of ourselves will not seek for God. We are lost, blind, delusional and without hope.
Like one asleep and dreaming in the bottom of a pit, we do not even realize our plight, let alone cry out for help. Only when God begins to draw, to awaken us can we see that we need Him.
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
God, in His grace, pursues and draws those who come to Him
“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”
Christ indeed had been lifted up on the cross:
receiving in Himself the full wrath of the Holy God for sin (not that He committed but that I did, that you did, that the Eunuch did)
having taken the punishment for the sins of man, He became the atoning sacrifice pictured in the old covenant laws and practices
Jesus had indeed been lifted up, that He might draw all men (mankind) to Himself
God had indeed sparked a longing and interest in this man for Himself. God had long been at work in this man, lovingly, leading him, drawing him
We don’t know how this man came to fear God and worship Him
God uses many and various means to ignite a desire in His people to seek after Him
Upbringing, Crisis, someone you met at work or at school.
A song, a movie, a dream, or an idea that get’s lodged in your heart and mind
He uses it all!
Illustration: As a crank connects the rope, and the rope is fastened to the bucket, so God uses a chain of circumstances, ideas, events and people to draw us to Himself!
God had led him to His people and His Word
God often draws people to Himself by bringing them in contact with His people - maybe this man had served with a Jewish captive who told the stories of their people and God’s works, who described the glory of the temple and the devotion and worship of the people on their sabbaths, the passover and the appointed feasts and festivals.
Remember how God place followers of Christ in your life, in specific ways and times and how they served to reveal God to you in profound and deeply meaningful ways?
God uses people, and He uses His Word
This man had gotten a copy of the book of Isaiah (these were few and far between!)
While he obviously couldn’t quite understand it, he revered it and read it, hoping to learn of God, to please Him and to obtain the righteousness and forgiveness required for heaven.
John 5:39 - God would use those very scriptures to reveal the Savior!
Ex. singing hymns at Mount Gilead, the words ringing in my heart
Read, and keep reading with a heart to find Him!!! Read until the scales drop from you eyes and you see! He is drawing you!
God was bringing him to a point of intersection where he would encounter the reality of Jesus as Savior and Lord, through Philip.
Though He was going the other direction, away from Jerusalem, away from the temple and the church, God was drawing him to Jesus
No one is out of reach of God. The way to Him is not predictable, not a straight line.
Ex. Joseph, Moses and the Israelites, Shane, Deb, Myself!
God is lovingly drawing His lost sheep. He does so in a thousand ways, using a thousand means, but all to bring them to a knowledge of Jesus as Savior and Lord!
He finds the lost sinners through sending. He brings the distant, the far away by drawing them with His love. Next week, we’ll dig into how He reveals the truth to those who cannot otherwise see by His illuminating work.