Acts Chapter 8:26-40

God's our God of Greg, Lori. It's not necessarily that you're supposed to be that person. He just wants you to be faithful.

He just wants you to tell other people about Him. A lot of times when I say this, you work up this just horrible scenario, and part of this is you're trying to kick a door down. I'm not asking you to kick a door down.

I'm just asking you to walk through doors that are open. If you find yourself at a fruit tree trying to pull the apple off the fruit tree, and you're jerking, and you're squeezing, and you're twisting, and the apples not coming off, it's not the time to pick the apple. It's not right. Wait. A lot of times we think, well it's just so hard to pick apples.

No, it's not. When they're ripe, it's really easy. It's not difficult. So we build this thing up in our mind. Or the other thing is, well I just don't know enough of the Bible.

I can't really, I can't really walk through somebody through what, you know, they need to do and need to say. With just a few short scriptures you can. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. Why should you share your faith in Jesus with others? Well if there's one simple reason we should tell others about Jesus, it's because he told us to. Today, Pastor David explains why we should get excited about evangelism as he continues teaching in the book of Acts chapter 8.

Now here's David McGee with part 2 of the teaching, Arise and Go. Turn with me to Acts chapter 8. Let's pick it up with verse 26. Acts chapter 8 verse 26. It says, Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, Arise and go towards the south, along the road which is down, which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

This is desert. Verse 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. He was returning, and sitting in his chariot he was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said to Philip, Go near and overtake this chariot. Verse 30, So Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, Do you understand what you are reading? And he said, How can I unless someone guides me? And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. Isn't it neat how God works? God told Philip to leave the desert, I mean told him to leave Samaria to go to the desert. He had already arranged the whole thing.

He'd already set the whole thing up. And he goes in the desert and imagine Philip's joy when he looks over and he sees this guy reading out loud the book of Isaiah. He's like, Oh, praise God.

This is why I'm here. Do you understand that's the way God works? That God will go before you?

The life lesson here? God goes before you when you are following him. God goes before you when you are following him. If you've ever thought that you're supposed to kick the door down for God, I'm sorry you're wrong.

You're supposed to look for open doors. And too many times we act like, you know, God's mercenaries or something. We're gonna kick the door down and we're gonna whether these people want to hear about Jesus or not, we're gonna tell them. I don't think that's the Lord. I think God opens doors.

And you know what? If you ask God to open doors for you, he will open doors. And when he does open doors, walk through them.

And it's just that easy. Verse 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 it sure is silent.

So he opened not his mouth and his humiliation as justice was taken away. And who will declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. So the eunuch answered Philip and said, I ask you of whom does the prophet say this?

Of himself or some other man? So again this passage is in Isaiah. It's what's referred to as the suffering servant passage. And this passage is pointing to Jesus. Do you realize this whole book points to Jesus? You know we talk on Thursday night we're going through the Hebrew Scriptures what people refer to as Old Testament.

We go through there and many Thursday nights people get saved. They're born again. They ask Jesus to forgive them of their sins. Now that probably that probably freaks some of you out because you're like Old Testament. How can somebody get saved off the Old Testament? Jesus is in the book.

He's in the whole book. I could take you through here and in the beginning you look at Adam and Eve and they fell and God took animals and he slew them. He sacrificed them and made them coats of skin shedding the blood covering their sins. Picture of Jesus. You go to the next chapter Abel and Cain. Abel was a keeper of sheep and he made an offering to the Lord that the Lord received. He offered him a lamb.

A picture of the Lamb of God which was Jesus. You go into Genesis chapter 22 Abraham and Isaac. You see Isaac placing the wood for a sacrifice on his back going up a hill. Just the way Jesus did many years later. Placed the wood on his back for a sacrifice and he went up the hill. As a matter of fact I can show you a scripture is the same hill. He's in the book.

The life lesson here. The Bible points us and everyone else to Jesus. The Bible points us and everyone else to Jesus.

And I can you can just go on. I mean from Genesis to Revelation you look at the feast. You look at the Feast of Yom Kippur the Day of Atonement. Oh it just speaks of Jesus. You look at the Passover speaks of Jesus. He's throughout this book and this book is all about God created us. God loves us. We turned our back on him and fell away and God won't rest until he wins us back.

That's the whole thing summed up. The whole book points to Jesus. So this suffering servant passage. You realize that's what Jesus did? I mean we think of him as a teacher. We think of him as a healer. We think of him as Savior. We think of him as Lord. We think of him as resurrected one. We think of him as creator.

He's all those things and and that's good. We think of him those ways but he was also a servant. A servant who got down on his knees to wash the feet of the disciples. Pastor why are you mentioning that? Well because the book of Acts refers to him several times as a servant.

I'll give you just four other places. Acts 3 13 says the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the God of our fathers glorified his servant Jesus whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. Acts 3 26 says to you first God having raised up his servant Jesus sent him to bless you and turning away every one of you from your iniquities. Acts 4 27 for truly against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together. Acts 4 30 Acts chapter 4 verse 30 by stretching out your hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.

What's my point? Well have you been here for very long it's one you've heard before and if you sit here this morning you tell me that you're a follower of Jesus but you're not servant who or what are you following? If Jesus was a servant himself and look if anybody ever walked this earth who deserved to be worshipped and praised and shouldn't have had to serve it was him but you know what he did he gave us a model even in the fact that he was baptized by somebody who their very salvation was dependent upon him.

That's how much humility he had. In verse 35 then Philip opened his mouth and beginning at the scripture preached Jesus to him. Start talking about Jesus talking about the suffering servant how he came to give his life away how he came to die for us and and again he's throughout the book.

I'm sure that Philip went you know through some of the book through some of the other parts of Isaiah probably. Why did Philip share Jesus with this unit? Let me make it a little more personal. Now don't answer out loud once you take a few seconds. If you have asked Jesus to forgive your sins you're following Jesus why should you share your faith with somebody else?

I'm gonna give you a couple seconds to think of your answer. Now you may think well no-brainer it's easy to see people get saved. Sorry sounds good sounds noble it's not a good answer.

I mean it's noble that you would care for people like that but let me explain. A lot of us start out in our faith and we understand we're supposed to share our faith and we think it's to see people get saved but what happens we share our faith with one person they don't get saved. We go oh bummer it's not working. We share our faith with somebody else and they don't get saved we go oh it's really not working I must not be gifted as a Benjamin. We share it with somebody else and we're like well I can't do this doesn't work something wrong with me or something.

Why? Because your motivation was to see people get saved and people aren't getting saved when you're sharing with them. So that's the wrong motivation. Well why do we share our faith? Because Jesus told us to. Jesus told us to share our faith. What's the difference? Oh it's a huge difference because understand the moment you open your mouth to tell somebody you're successful in God's eyes. It's up to God whether that person comes to a saving knowledge of him or not. It's up to him. Our job, our role is to present it and the moment you say word one you're doing an awesome job.

You're doing great. God looks down good ah look at him. Share it. In America people hear the gospel about seven times before they come to the Lord on average.

You don't know if you're number one or number seven. Your job is just to tell them. Don't necessarily try to kick the door down. Just tell them about the goodness of the Lord. The life lesson we tell other people about Jesus because Jesus told us to. We tell other people about Jesus because Jesus told us to.

God's already got a Greg Laurie. It's not necessarily that you're supposed to be that person. He just wants you to be faithful.

He just wants you to tell other people about him. And a lot of times when I say this you you work up this just horrible scenario and and part of this is you're trying to kick a door down. I'm not asking to kick a door down.

I'm just asking to walk through doors that are open. If you find yourself at a fruit tree trying to pull the apple off the fruit tree and you're jerking and you're squeezing and you're twisting and the apples not coming off it's not the time to pick the Apple. It's not right. Wait. And and so a lot of times we think well it's just so hard to pick apples.

No it's not. When they're ripe it's really easy. It's not difficult. So we build this thing up in our mind. Or the other thing is well I just don't know enough of the Bible. I can't really I can't really walk through somebody through what you know they need to do and need to say. With just a few short scriptures you can. If you're taking notes or even if you're taking not taking notes you may want to jot these down.

It's called the Roman road. I'll share with you just a few verses and you hear me quote them a lot. Romans 3 10, 3 23, 5 8, 5 12 and we'll leave these up for a minute or so. 6 23 Romans 10 9 10 and 13.

Now you hear me quote these in here a lot. Romans 3 10 3 23 there's for there's none righteous no not one for all fallen short of the glory of God as by one man sin entered into the world death by sin and so death passed upon all men and so and it'd be great to memorize these. And then Romans 10 9 and 10 talks about if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus was raised from the dead thou shalt be saved. Romans 10 13 talking about whosoever calls on the name of the Lord.

And again you don't have to memorize these you can just write them in your Bible. And if God opens the door say hey you know can I share some scriptures with you? If somebody says hey it's by our own goodness we get to heaven say whoa whoa do you know that's not in the Bible?

Do you know that's not biblical? And God will open doors for you. Romans 10 17 says so then faith comes by hearing hearing by the Word of God. You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge.

He'll be right back with more in just a moment but I want to remind you of the free resources available to you on crossthebridge.com. There's a team of hundreds of people that will pray for somebody to be saved. You have a loved one that needs to know Jesus as Savior. You need people to pray for them.

You need someone to present God's Word to them. Every day we're presenting God's Word to them here on Cross the Bridge with Pastor David McGee. We can pray for them as well just by simply going to crossthebridge.com and click on the pray for the lost button. All you need to do is put in the first names of the people you love that need to know Jesus as Savior. Click on submit and immediately hundreds of people will begin praying for your lost loved ones.

And what an awesome way to bring your loved ones to Jesus. Here's a word from associate pastor DA Brown. We want to take just a minute to pray for some cities in our listening audience specifically Reedsport, Roseburg, Seaside, Selma, Sprague River, and the Dalles in Oregon and also Hammett in Pennsylvania. Father we thank you for these cities.

We thank you for the people living in them. We pray that your Holy Spirit would pour out and draw many people into a personal intimate relationship with Jesus. Father we pray that many people would be healed who perhaps have had bad experiences in the past God.

That they would receive forgiveness and forgive those in their lives who have offended them. Lord we pray that you draw people into Bible teaching churches that you give the pastors wisdom and discernment father to love the flock to serve them well. Lord we pray for all the city leaders that we would honor them and respect them and that you would give them wisdom and discernment father. Lord that it might go peaceable with us. Lord we love you. We pray that you would bless the people living in these cities. In Jesus name Amen. Amen.

Thank you brother. And now let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 36. Now as they went down the road they came to some water and the eunuch said see here's water what hinders me from being baptized.

Do you see the enthusiasm of the people in this chapter? This guy we don't even know it's gonna been a like a mud puddle. Well hopefully it was deeper so it was immersion but you know and the guys like hey here's some water baptized. Baptize me. It troubles me sometimes people say well I'm following Jesus I've asked Jesus to forgive me I'm in a sense I just want to be baptized.

What? You believe what he says about life, death, eternity, heaven, hell, sin, sinlessness, forgiveness, but you're gonna stop when he says go into the water. That seems a little weird to me friend.

Go for it. The life lesson here every follower of Jesus should be baptized. Every follower of Jesus should be baptized. And there's a beautiful picture you know and what it is is your death and burial into the water water a grave as it's been referred to and your resurrection up out of the grave and you're identifying with the death and the burial of Jesus Christ and with the resurrection of Jesus Christ you're dying to the old life and being resurrected to the new life. Does that mean you'll never make a mistake again?

Hopefully. No it doesn't mean that. It means that you're identifying with Jesus.

You'll still mess up occasionally. Still need to run to him for something for forgiveness. In verse 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.

Notice Philip's answer. If you believe in your heart. He didn't say well if your mom and dad want you to be and say that. He said if you believe. So pretty much kind of wipes away that infant baptism thing.

I don't mean to pick on you. Again I was baptized as an infant. Just looking at the Bible in love it doesn't count.

I mean you just don't see it in the Bible. It says here you can be baptized if you believe in your heart. So if you believe in your heart you should be baptized. If you were sprinkled and you had yet to believe in your heart, friend you weren't baptized.

So let me encourage you to do that and I know that there's a lot of missed teaching. That's why I take time with some of this. But verse 38, so he commanded the chariot to stand still and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and he baptized him. Now when they came up out of the water the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away so that the eunuch saw him no more and he went on his way rejoicing. I don't know if this was a supernatural thing where Philip just went poof. You know I don't know. I mean could be. God can do that I guess. God can do a lot of things.

Or maybe it was just Philip left and then he didn't hang out with a guy anymore. And let me ask you a question. Who was gonna follow up with the eunuch? God was.

Now this is not to say that we don't have a responsibility and follow up. It just means that the ultimate responsibility is the Lord's. Do you know who started the good work in your life? You know who brought you to this place today? We're all here because God wants to speak to us. He wants to do something in our life. And the cool thing is according to Philippians 1 6 it says, being confident of everything that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

He's gonna start it and he's gonna finish it. Now there's some decisions that you make that will make you stronger in your faith. It's not to release you of any and all accountability, but it means that the Lord is the one working inside of you. Jude 24 says this and now all glory to God who is able to keep you from stumbling and who will bring you into his glorious presence innocent of sin and with great joy. He sit there and go away man keep you from stumbling. Pastor I stumble.

Yeah I do too. Sometimes I do things I shouldn't. Sometimes I don't do things I should.

Just being transparent. Paul said same thing happened with him. So how can this verse say that he can keep us from stumbling? God is able to keep us from stumbling. Friend we choose to stumble sometimes.

That's the sad fact. And then when we do the Lord convicts us or convinces us of our sins so that we come back to him. Now there's one other word here I want to I want to it says the Lord caught Philip away. It's an interesting word in the Greek. Harpazo. You may not be familiar with that word. The Latin word for harpazo is rapturos.

You still may be going I don't get that. That's the word rapture that we use. People say rapture is not in the Bible. Well there's a lot of things that aren't in the Bible, but rapturos from our derivation of that Latin is in there. Now the rapture is that point in time when Jesus calls the church home to himself.

Let me explain. And there's three thoughts on the rapture. There's the pre-tribulation rapture. The tribulation is a seven-year period that lots of stuff goes wrong. It talks about in the book of Revelation.

You really don't want to be here. Now I believe and I believe Scripture teaches a pre-tribulation rapture. That is before the tribulation starts God calls the church out and then he comes back with the church at the end of the tribulation. Some people believe in a mid-tribulation that in the middle of the tribulation that's when the rapture happens. And then some people believe in a post-tribulation after the tribulation is when the rapture happens. If you believe in a mid-trib and a post-trib you're welcome to fellowship here. And I'll just explain it to you on the way up. Because the Bible clearly teaches a pre-tribulation rapture.

But the point is at some point it's gonna happen. Everybody in this room is gonna meet Jesus. Are you ready?

Everybody in here. Now if you meet him for the first time after you pass away it's not gonna be a good meeting. If you meet him here for the first time it's gonna be a rejoicing. And you get to decide. I've never seen the landscape look like it looks right now to be honest.

There are things going on that I don't want to get too deep. We're gonna close in just a moment. But what we see developing to me is incredibly exciting. I don't see of another development that needs to happen before that event called the rapture of the church. That's exciting to me. You know why? Because I'm ready. Are you ready for that event? And maybe you're sitting there going yes I've asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins.

Great! Are you serving him? Because if not you'll have to explain that to him. Forget me being on your case or me making you uncomfortable. You're gonna stand before your creator who died for your sins explaining why you didn't have time to serve him or those he died for. I don't want that for you. The final verse here.

But Philip was found at Azotus passing through he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. Understand we have the best news that the world has ever heard and the best offer that's ever been extended to them. And we can join together as a team to tell them about this good news and this offer. Some of them may be your family members. Some of them may be your friends your co-workers. Can you really sit there this morning and say I'm alright they come they come they don't they don't. Is that the heart of Jesus who died for us?

I don't think it is. You see here's it's not meant to be a secret. Isaiah 53 6 that same suffering servant passage says this all of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God's path to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the guilt and sins of us all. Talking about Jesus.

It says all of us have strayed every one of us. We've all left God's path to do our own thing and the Lord laid on Jesus our sins and our guilt. You're not equipped to carry your guilt. You are not built to carry your guilt. Psychologists and psychiatrists they all recognize it that you can't carry your guilt. That there is a guilt in your life and you can't be so bad that you forget about it.

You can't do enough drugs. You can't drink enough where you forget about it and you can't be so good as to wipe it away. No amount of good actions or good behavior or good deeds is gonna wipe that away. You yourself cannot do anything about that guilt. God set it up like that and the moment you realize that hope can walk into your life in the form of Jesus Christ. But because you can realize that you know what I can't do anything. Praise God. Something has been done and that was Jesus dying on the cross for you. That you could be forgiven. Again I don't know when this rapture occurs or when you go to be with the Lord or when you die.

I don't know. I do know that at some point it happens to every one of us. A hundred percent of the people in here right now will stand before the Lord. The only decision that you have to make is what will be said on that day.

Depart from me I never knew you. Well done now good and faithful servant. Friend do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short simple prayer simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days in Jesus name. Amen. Friend if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible you've been forgiven you've been born again.

So congratulations friend you just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time we'd love to hear from you. Visit crossthebridge.com and click on God's plan for new life to receive our first steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. God wants to bless you and encourage your relationships today. Whether you are married considering marriage or engaged to be married we have a resource for you. Pastor David wants to send you his four-part video series allies stay friends. Allow God to minister to your marriage through his word today. This was an unforgettable weekend that encouraged many marriages and you and your spouse can be encouraged too. Allies stay friends is our thanks for your generous gift today to help more people hear God's truth on this station and beyond so they can cross the bridge from death to life. Please visit crossthebridge.com today to give a gift of any amount and get your copy of allies stay friends. Well DA before we go what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional life lessons to consider a daily reading plan and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific and it's easy and it's free so folks sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse through the book of Acts.