The True Gospel: The Gospel that Radically Changes Lives

Introduction

Whenever Lindsey and I got married back in 2018, times were tight. We had each other and we had incredibly supportive parents and friends and, genuinely, life was amazing. We both had part-time jobs and were full-time students at SBU and were navigating the first few weeks/months of being newlyweds. Whenever you get married, lots of things change and marriage counseling helped prepare us for some of those things, but even the best marriage counseling can’t prepare you for everything. I’ve always been a detailed planner, especially when it comes to finances and I quickly realized that as a young married couple in college, we weren’t going to be in the most financial secure place. This created some stress at times, but the Lord always provided. Going into our first Christmas as a married couple, Lindsey wanted to get some decorations for our apartment in Bolivar and we went to the only place in Bolivar to get such a thing: Walmart. Whenever you’re getting ready for Christmas, the first thing you normally think of is a Christmas tree! As we made our way through the Christmas tree section we had some differing views about which tree to get. Lindsey found a beautiful tree that was nice and tall and one that would last for years and years. The tree was $50 and our “extras” budget was $30 for the rest of the month. Times were tough, but God always provided somehow. After I preached a sermon at FBC Ozark, I received a card from a dear friend and didn’t think too much of it because of the amount of people Lindsey and I were greeting and talking with. After we got back to our apartment I opened the card and inside was a check for a substantial amount of money. A check that brought tears to our eyes. A check that I still think about years later because God, as only He could’ve done, brought our paths to that moment in time whenever we were struggling to buy a normal Christmas tree from Walmart.

This is how God operates, though. God provides for His children in unique ways. Consider how He has provided specifically for you in your life. Perhaps through a family member or friend. Perhaps through a complete stranger or loose acquaintance. God provides and brings people together for His purposes.

As we continue looking in the book of Acts, this morning we’ll see Phillip reappear in the narrative as he comes in contact with an Ethiopian. How will God provide? God sends Phillip to this man - a man who already has a copy of the Old Testament Scriptures. A man who already is reading them whenever Phillip appears. The stage is set for Phillip to proclaim the truth of Jesus to this individual! Yet, the story starts before this conversation. The Gospel changed Phillip’s life and the Holy Spirit had a hold of His life in such a way that Phillip was obedient to listen to God’s voice and to follow Him wherever He was told to go. The Gospel had changed Phillip’s life and Phillip was ready to help others understand its truth. God doesn’t leave things to chance - He has a purpose behind things. He promises to provide - He does this in our text and He continues to do so in our lives today.

Let’s read this morning out of Acts 8:26-40

Acts 8:26–40 CSB

26 An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip: “Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is the desert road.) 27 So he got up and went. There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch and high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to worship in Jerusalem 28 and was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading the prophet Isaiah aloud. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go and join that chariot.” 30 When Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the Scripture passage he was reading was this: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. 33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who will describe his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. 34 The eunuch said to Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet saying this about—himself or someone else?” 35 Philip proceeded to tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning with that Scripture. 36 As they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look, there’s water. What would keep me from being baptized?” 38 So he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any longer but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip appeared in Azotus, and he was traveling and preaching the gospel in all the towns until he came to Caesarea.

We Must Listen (26)

It’s been said before that God gave us 1 mouth and 2 ears for a reason: We should listen more than we speak! Yet, there are times in life where it can be difficult to listen. Whenever we are angry, it can be difficult to listen to reason. Whenever we are happy, it can be difficult to listen because of our shouts for joy. Whenever we are focused on something, it can be difficult to listen to another voice. Whenever we are going throughout lives, it can be difficult to listen to the Holy Spirit.

As Christians, Satan cannot snatch us from the hands of our Father. We are secured in Him and our salvation is not in question. However, that doesn’t mean that Satan simply leaves us alone and that we are exempt from spiritual warfare. Paul talks about how we should put on the armor of God daily to stand against the schemes of the devil. Why do this daily? Because each day is a battle! The enemy would love for us to fail to do our mission as Christians of loving others as Christ has loved us and failing to share the truth of the Gospel with the lost. The enemy would love for us to get divided over secondary and tertiary level things within the Church that we lose our focus and hinder our witness in our community and beyond. We know that we are battling against a powerful foe who is depicted as a roaring lion prowling around ready to devour people! How can we fight against this enemy? By relying on our own intuition and power? If we do that, as many have tried, we will lose! We must rely on God’s power. We must listen to His voice and follow His leading.

John 10:27 CSB

27 My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.

How amazing is this truth? We, as Christians, hear His voice. How does God most often speak to His people? There are times where He does through dreams and through an audible voice - after all, He is God and can do whatever He chooses! Yet, through Scripture and our experience, it seems that God most often communicates and speaks to us through His Word. As a result of this, if we really want to be faithful Christians who listen to our Father, we can’t just keep on asking for a sign or an audible word from Him whenever we neglect to dive into His written Word. We believe that the Bible is the Word of God

2 Timothy 3:16 CSB

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,

We’ve studied this in depth during our Sunday evening study through the Baptist Faith and Message - friends, the Bible changes lives and many churchgoers who have been asked in the past state that they rarely read their Bible and have never read all the way through it. Again, not every Christian falls into this category, but many do. In our text we see that an angel of the Lord spoke to Phillip and he gave him instructions to go down to Gaza. Now, will an angel stand before you and shout a command to you or I? Probably not - I’m not saying its impossible, but I’m saying that’s highly doubtful. So, how can we know what we should do as Christians? We must be in His Word. We spent much time in prayer.

Paul Washer shared a convicting message a couple of days ago and asked this, “I challenge you: over a week’s time, compare your screen time to your prayer time.”

Many Christians - many of us - desperately want to know what God wants us to do but if we consider this statement, our time ratio would be significantly out of proportion by and large. Maybe for you it’s not screen time but it’s book time or TV time. We have things that get in the way of us listening to God. What is that thing in your life?

Understand that everyone has their own respective struggle and temptation, you’re not alone in this! Know that the Creator of the Universe has a plan specifically for you. He knows you. He made you. He sustains you and puts breath into your lungs. Doesn’t that humble you? He wants to speak to you. In order to follow His plan for our lives, though, we must listen. We must listen to His Word. We must listen to His voice. We must listen to His Spirit. We read, pray, encourage one another, and as we sense His direction, we act - just as Phillip does.

We Must Go (27-29)

Phillip listens to this instruction in verse 26 and we read in verse 27 that “He got up and went.” Does Phillip complain about the task before him? Does he say that he needs clarification? Does he say anything to this angel? Not according to the Bible - he simply obeys. First time obedience is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?! Contrast this response to God’s call to Jonah’s response in the Old Testament. What did God call Jonah to do? Go to Nineveh and call them to repent of their sinfulness. What did Jonah do? He went somewhere but he didn’t go where God called him to go. Tony Merida notes that Jonah was a reluctant missionary who was arrogant and didn’t think the Assyrians were worthy of God’s forgiveness. Phillip isn’t told what will happen on this journey, but as things play out he doesn’t have this stubborn attitude as Jonah did. Rather, Phillip goes and meets a man from Ethiopia - a Gentile - and he will share with him the Gospel.

Why must we go as Christians? It’s a whole lot more comfortable to stay in our homes and in our comfortable communities. Giving and praying are important, don’t get me wrong, but why does the Great Commission tell us to “go” in the first place? Because there are people who are lost. Because the Gospel changes lives. Because the Gospel is a worldwide message!

As Southern Baptists, we have something called the International Mission Board that helps fund and support missionaries all around the world. Why do we support the IMB? Why give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering year in and year out? Why give over $5 billion just to take the Gospel overseas? Because we must go. Because if we don’t, there are people who will go their entire lives and never hear the name of Jesus Christ. There are billions of people today who, if they die, will spend eternity in hell and that should break our hearts as followers of Jesus Christ.

We read that Phillip is obedient to go and encounters this Ethiopian eunuch. Phillip started by listening to God and now he is obedient to follow God’s plan and here we see that God, through His Spirit, has orchestrated a divine encounter. This eunuch was coming from Jerusalem and had worshiped there. Does this mean that the man was an ethnic Jew? No. He was likely a god-fearer. A gentile who worshiped God. This is a thing in the Old Testament, but a god-fearing eunuch only could worship God “so much” and didn’t enjoy the full benefits of being a Jew. Assuming he had gone to the temple, a eunuch could only go into the outer court and only Jewish men could enter the inner most part. The eunuch was restricted under the law by his skin color and his position. Yet, Phillip is going to share with him that he is not restricted by God’s Son. He is welcomed with open arms - as we are able to share with others today whenever we go!

This eunuch, again in God’s providence, is reading the Isaiah scroll. In the ancient world, there weren’t just thousands and thousands of extra copies of Scripture laying around for everyone to read. They were sacred. They were few. How could this man have a copy? We see that he is a high official in the Ethiopian court. This is a powerful man. He is reading from Isaiah 53 as we’ll see in a minute and what is interesting about the end of Isaiah is that in Isaiah 56, Isaiah declares God’s promise for, guess who? Eunuchs. Look with me in Isaiah 56:5, a few chapters past what this man is currently reading

Isaiah 56:4–5 CSB

4 For the Lord says this: “For the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose what pleases me, and hold firmly to my covenant, 5 I will give them, in my house and within my walls, a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give each of them an everlasting name that will never be cut off.

In the ancient world what people wanted most was descendants who would carry on their name and legacy. Eunuchs couldn’t have this and, as a result, were looked down upon at times. What does God’s Word say about eunuchs who follow Him? They will receive an everlasting name that will never be cut off.

Friends, whenever we go, as Phillip did, we trust and know that God will provide. Phillip listens and is obedient to go. God provides him with a golden opportunity. If Phillip were a baseball player, it would be like a pitcher throwing him a beach ball instead of a baseball. He has received a steak on a platter ready to be eaten. This eunuch is reading Scripture and looking for answers - people in our world want answers as well. What is our call according to God’s Word? Simple: Give them the truth.

We Must Teach (30-38)

As Phillip talks with the eunuch, he asks some profound questions and shares that he is reading from the Suffering Servant passage of Isaiah 52-53. The Eunuch asks, “Who is Isaiah speaking about - himself or someone else?” In the 1st century world, there were some who attributed the Suffering Servant to the nation of Israel as a whole or to a Messiah who had not yet come. Therefore, there was some confusion as to why this text of Scripture mattered so much or how to apply it properly. One of the reasons that context matters so much is that we are 2000 years removed from whenever Jesus’ walked the earth and from when His followers began sharing the Gospel with the lost. We look at a passage like Isaiah 52-53 as clearly being in reference to Jesus Christ because of what the Gospels share with us. But the early church didn’t have a New Testament to base that off of. The only Scripture was the Old Testament. So how does Phillip explain the Suffering Servant passage to the Ethiopian man? We read in verses 34-35 that he shares the Gospel with him starting with this passage of Scripture.

David Peterson shares in his commentary on Acts that, “God was sovereign in this situation and provides Phillip with this text to proclaim Christ.” What a natural seg-way for Phillip to share how the real Servant of Isaiah 52-53 came to save His people from their sins as Matthew 1:21 states with us

Matthew 1:21 CSB

21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Phillip doesn’t start with the cross or empty tomb, he starts with something familiar - the Old Testament - and he points out how Jesus fulfilled these things. Jesus, as Isaiah prophesied, suffered and was raised. Jesus was rejected and pierced for our transgressions. Jesus was willing to suffer and experience injustice on the cross even though He knew no sin. And in dying on the cross as our substitute, Jesus justifies us before a holy, just, God. To answer the Ethiopian’s question, Phillip begins with this text and points straight to Jesus Christ because only Jesus could possibly do these things for sinful humans like you and I!

So many people in our world wonder what the big deal is about Jesus Christ and why He matters so much to us today. This Ethiopian likely was alive during Jesus’ ministry but likely hadn’t heard of Him because He was from a far away land. Others in Jesus’ day rejected Him and didn’t think that He mattered to them. People today reject Jesus regularly and think that He is outdated and not relevant. To borrow from Tony Merida, whenever you start to work on a puzzle, you look at the picture on the box to help you sort through the pieces. You start with the outside frame and begin to work on large shapes and colors inside the frame itself. What is the big picture of the Bible? We read in Scripture from beginning to end that it’s all about Jesus. He is the hero. He is the climax of redemptive history. He is the One who saves. He is the One who wins! Therefore, as we read our Bible we can’t miss the fact that puzzle is a picture of Jesus Christ - it all points to Him.

Think of how Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7 was structured. Did Stephen start with the cross? No. He started way back with Abraham and went through the heroes of the Old Testament and how they were God’s servants, not God’s Son. Stephen and Phillip preach Christocentric messages. They point people to Jesus. May we do the same with our conversations with other people!

If someone came to you and asked what they must do to be saved or why Jesus matters, do you think you could explain the truth to them? Could you tell them the Good News in, say, 1-2 minutes? As Christians we are called to share the good news and to teach the truth. Everyone is gifted differently and not everyone is gifted like Phillip or Stephen, but we are all called to give a defense and point people to Jesus. Whenever we do this, we glorify God and we evangelize others. The result of evangelism, at least sometimes, is conversion and this is how our text concludes as the Ethiopian wants to be baptized as soon as they spot some water.

For those of you who have been a Christian for a while, think back to your conversion. Think back to whenever someone took the time to explain God’s Word to you and it finally clicked for the first time like it did for this man. Do you remember the excitement? Do you remember your passion? This man didn’t have a supernatural vision like Saul did on the Road to Damascus. He just had a faithful teacher tell him what the Bible says and why Jesus matters so much… And that was enough.

Friends, we need to trust in the Spirit’s direction and be obedient to simply share the truth with others. Consider how you can do a better job of sharing the Gospel truth with those around you in the days and weeks to come.

We Must Persevere (39-40)

As the Gospel changes our lives and the lives of others, we are reminded that - again - our work is not over. The Ethiopian eunuch has accepted Christ as Lord - Phillip preached the Gospel to him and he responded with faith and baptism. As he comes out of the water, the man rejoices and his story stops. We never read of this man again in the contents of Scripture. What do you think happened to him? Obviously he was heading south from Jerusalem, likely back to his country of Ethiopia. What do you think he did when he got home? The early church father Irenaeus tells us that this man returned home and told his people the truth about Jesus as a Christian missionary. The Gospel changed his life and even if we aren’t told in Scripture about how radically his future changed, we do see that he rejoiced as a new creation.

As Christians, there are times where it can be easy to rejoice. There are mountain top experiences where we feel like we are in the middle of God’s will and those moments are nothing short of exciting. There are also moments where we are seeking His will and it feels like we are in the valley low. It feels like there is darkness all around us and like we’ve fallen into an unescapable pit of sorts. What must we remind ourselves? Our God is the God of the hills and the valleys. He is with us through it all. Therefore, we must persevere and trust in Him because we know that He has a plan for us.

Phillip was obedient in this story to listen to the Lord, to obey the Lord, and to teach this Gentile about the Lord. It would’ve been tempting perhaps to take a break after this, but we see that Phillip continues following the Spirit of the Lord and preaches the Gospel in town after town after town. Phillip persevered. He continued to fight the good fight. He was able to share eternal hope with rejected, lost, broken people. This is the same message that we have to share with people today. Are we willing to be faithful to share, though? That is the question that we must individually ask ourselves each and every day.

Conclusion

In the book of Acts, we clearly see that God provides opportunities for the Gospel to be proclaimed. We’ve seen this in every chapter thus far! Did you know that God continues to provide opportunities for His followers to proclaim His Gospel to a lost and dying world today? How can we capitalize on these types of opportunities? 3 steps to do this faithfully.

Wait for the Lord

The Lord promises to direct us along the way. He promises to lead us. We know that He has a plan for us that is for our good and for His glory - therefore, we can fully trust in Him! Yet, there are times in life where we are ready to go or where we don’t want to move and the Lord has a different plan for us. In order to capitalize on the opportunities He provides for us, we must wait for His timing.

Know the Word

Psalm 119:11 shares with us the importance of knowing God’s Word

Psalm 119:11 ESV

11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

Why do we “store up” God’s Word in our heart? So that we won’t sin against Him. We have to know His Word in order to know Him and we have to know His Word in order to share His truth with others! The more that you know His Word, the more tools and weapons you have at your disposal during these types of divine opportunities. Phillip knew the suffering servant text and he applied it directly to Jesus Christ. Whenever people have questions about Jesus or about the Bible, we must know how to answer them. This requires us to know His Word.

Remember your Purpose

As Christians, our purpose is to glorify God. We point others to Jesus Christ and we find true lasting satisfaction whenever we do His will. Sometimes divine opportunities require us to get a little outside of our comfort zone. That’s not something that we naturally enjoy doing, but whenever we remember that our purpose is to bring God glory and to share His Gospel with others, we find satisfaction and joy in things that would otherwise make us uncomfortable.

The Bible is a Christocentric book - it’s all about Jesus Christ. His Gospel changes lives. His truth should change the way that we live because He gives us a new purpose as a new creation. We must listen to His voice - we must follow His guidance - we must teach His truth - we must persevere and fulfill our purpose. Share the Gospel hope and truth that there is salvation found in Jesus Christ and in Him alone!