Transcription
We come back to the book of Acts, and this time we come back in the center section. We've really developed all the way through the death of Stephen at the end of chapter 7. In Chapter 8, we're making the point that there are some reactions that happen as a result of the death of Stephen. If I was gonna break chapter 8, this is how I would break it: 8:1 through 4, I would simply call the problems. And then 8:5 through 40, I would call the responses. The problems, 1, 2, 4. The responses, 5 through 40.
Now, let's take a look at the problems. Verses 1 through 4 say, "Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death," meaning Stephen. "And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him. But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison." Therefore, "those who had been scattered went about preaching the word."
Now, just stop there for a second and take a look at the problem. Stephen's death caused a heightened tension, heightened persecution of the early group of believers. And men like Saul of Tarsus, who are out-of-town students, they come from, in his case, Colicchio or Cilicia, which is in the southern part of what is today modern Turkey. And he is trying to destroy God's church. Now, it looks bad for the home team if you're there at that time. It looks like the church is taking one belt after another.
Who would have thought? And I want you to think about this for a minute. Who would have thought that the guy who was leading the persecution would be the guy leading the church in a matter of a couple of chapters? Nobody. That means at the moment when things seemed their darkest, God may be moving chess pieces behind the scene that you don't anticipate. I would say to you that the fruit that came from this was the spread of the gospel.
But take a look at the problems. I count three of them. First, the apostolic leaders, according to verse 2, stay in Jerusalem. But apparently, they hid as Saul was dragging around individual followers and beating them up. So, let me suggest to you that Saul is going house to house. But notice what he's actually going after. It says, "dragging off men and women to put them in prison." Saul seems to have a free hand from the Sanhedrin to drag them off as people who are committing crimes. What's interesting is the apostolic leaders are under cover of darkness. They're staying in Jerusalem, and many of the followers are scattered to Judea and Samaria.
So, I would like to make the note in verses 1 through 4 that the persecution came to make them obedient. God told them to go out, and they promptly didn't. The church is always more comfortable in a holy huddle than it is in evangelism and outreach. It doesn't like to go out. It's dangerous out there. And when God put pressure on them in persecution, that caused them to become obedient to what he told them would happen in Acts chapter 1, verse 8: "You're going to go out and be witnesses, not just in Jerusalem, but also in to Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth." And here's the thing: they promptly then spent the next seven chapters staying exactly where they were in a holy huddle, going nowhere. And that's not what God told them to do. Sometimes trouble produces in our life obedience. It makes us, it dislodges us and gets us into a situation where we're ready to do something.
Let me suggest to you that several godly men buried Stephen, but they are obviously deeply hurt by his loss. Don't pass over that. When you wound the leaders or kill the leaders, you harm the movement. So, I wanted to put this back in the context that Stephen was chosen by the people. He fit the parameters. And his, let's be honest, his sermon, you could choke a mule with the size of the notes on his sermon alone. So he was a smart guy, a biblical guy, a chosen guy, a popular guy, and now a dead guy.
Now, what's gonna happen? Or the reactions, or the responses. And here's what I think: 5 through 40 is not a story about, "Therefore, the church closed," but rather, "Therefore, the church expanded." Under persecution, expansion happened. You should know that in the history of the church, the best expansions have generally happened under persecution. We're better as victims than victors, because when we're in charge, we get heady. But when we're getting beat up, we get real.
So, take a look at verses 4 through, or 5 through 8. First of all, you start to see what I would call off-the-radar screen people. People that are outside the comfort zone of the message are starting to be included. Let's say it this way: when persecution came, the circle expanded. And so, in chat, in verse 5, it says, "Philip went down to the city of Samaria, began proclaiming Christ to them. The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, and they, as they heard and saw the signs that he was performing, for in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice, and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed. So there was much rejoicing in that city."
So, the first thing I see is that Philip proclaimed the Messiah in Samaria to crowds in verse 6, and showed them God's power in signs and miracles. And this included people being set free from demonic bondage, and this is bringing physical healing in verse 7 with cripples and lame. And though they were once forgotten, now they had found joy. So, now the message is going to the Samaritans. And I think that Luke includes the story of Philip because of Acts 1:8. I think because he said Jesus said we were going to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. So the next step after Jerusalem and Judea is, let's go to Samaria and tell you what happened there.
Don't get the idea that Philip started the evangelism and in Samaria. We don't know that. Don't even get the idea that he was the, the Billy Graham of Samaria. We don't know that. All we have is one story that Luke includes of the many stories of people being saved in Samaria, so that you get a sense that the gospel is moving out. But can you at least agree with me that when you read 5 through 8, it feels like persecution and 1 through 4 led to expansion, and 5 through 8? That's what I'm trying to say.
Then, in 9 to 5, I see something. I see high-needs people. I see ignorant people. I see insincere people. I see very draining people. If in 5 through 9, they started to punch away at Satan's territory and demoniacs are being delivered, Satan makes a comeback in verses 9 through 25 by trying to swamp them and suck the life out of them with high-needs people. Please, please pay attention to this. That is the method the enemy uses. You move forward, you start to get people, people start to really see God at work, and the enemy answers with 400 high-needs people like mosquitos sucking the life out of the ministry. And that probably sounded really harsh because it sounds like, it sounds like I don't care about people. But that's not the truth. The truth is that there are a lot of high-needs people that are dominated by Satan who aren't going to fix their problems. They're just gonna walk in and give you their problems. That's what they're going to do. So you need to be both sensitive and humble and wise and sharp. Some of the most important things you're gonna say in ministry are, "No, I can't get involved in that." People are gonna try to draw you into their conflicts, and you're gonna get caught up in a quagmire and never get on with your ministry. I'm telling you, that's true. And you may or may not believe me, and that may sound harsh. I'm telling you, that's true. People will park themselves in the middle of your ministry and play out their little fantasy of multiple relationships and tear apart a church. And you've got to be there as much to protect those who are innocent as to care for those who are broken. We're all broken, but we need to be careful that we don't share our breaks, but rather share our healing.
Okay, that's the reason why it's not wrong for a government to decide that a person with a communicable disease needs to be quarantined for a while. Sometimes we have spiritual versions of communicable diseases, and we allow people to walk around infecting everybody with them. You be careful. You're gonna see this in youth groups. The bad kid is gonna pull three bad kids downward, better than the good kid is gonna pull three bad kids upward. That's because the, because the level's not even. The world is slanted against the kid who's trying to walk with God. So you need to be careful about how many times you bring in the bad influences and think that's gonna somehow be worked out by your people.
Take a look. Maybe I'm talking around it. In verse 9, you start to see a man called Simon the sorcerer, who was amazed when he saw the powers of the apostles and interpreted them as magic. It says, "In verse 9, there was a man named Simon, who formerly was practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great. And they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him. This man is what is what is called the great power of God, and they were giving him attention because he had a long time astonished them with the magic arts."
All right, what's at the heart of Simon, based on verses 9 through 11? What's he about? Attention, fame, the desire to be known. There will come about in every ministry that you're a part of, when things start gaining ground, people who are trying to be important, and that's why they're there. You need to know that. So listen, if you're a politician in town, do you go to the smallest church in town or the most recognized church in town? What would be your natural place to go? Find the biggest and most recognized, because you're about being recognized. I'm not saying that small is holy and big is unholy. What I'm saying is, people go to church for lots of reasons. They become part of a body for lots of reasons, and many of them have nothing to do with following Jesus Christ. So you can be part of a movement that starts at a hundred, and by the end of the year, 300. Are you doing great? Maybe. But maybe not. You may have just pulled in a whole bunch of people who are about to swamp the.
And one of the things you have to be careful of, and I don't mean to sound this unloving, as I know that sounds, but I have dealt with this for 30 years, and what I find is everybody gets excited about everybody that walks through the door. But everybody that walks through the door, if they're there for a reason that is not what God would have it be, brought another agenda to the table. And say, you have to be careful to teach the word, preach the word, and keep your eyes on people while you're sharing with them how to deal with the break-in in their own heart.
Simon shouldn't have been kept out of the church. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying you need to identify him when he walks through the door so that he doesn't become the chairman of the deacon board because he thinks tricks are really important, because he's gonna want to be, he's gonna want to be on the platform the second week. Why? Because he's about fame. And here's the thing: when someone comes to me and they come from the back door and want to be on the platform in two weeks, I pick that out and I start to be careful with the how that person is used in ministry situations until I'm sure that the real reason they're doing this is God burdened them and put something on their heart, not they just want to be important. Because there are people who just want to be important.
Now, the other thing that I notice, if you keep reading, is it also says Simon accepted Messiah and he remained close to the apostles, perhaps because he sensed he would lose the crowds' recognition without joining in. And perhaps he was just ignorant of the way the Spirit of God. I can't tell. But verse 13 says, "Even Simon himself believed after being baptized. He continued on with Philip as he observed signs and great miracles taking place. He was constantly amazed." For whatever reason, he didn't get how the Spirit works.
Now, let's not condemn the poor guy. He was a new believer. At the same time, he was a new believer with a background in tricks. So you've got to keep that in mind. What I'm saying is, even a new believer who has the grace of God and is forgiven, if he's a four-time bank robber, don't make him treasurer of the church. That's what I'm trying to say. Be a little bit wise. But wait a minute, isn't his sin forgiven? Yes. But if the area of temptation has been in his life over and over and over, you don't want to put him back in that soup. You're setting them up for failure.
Now, what's interesting to me is in verses 14 to 17, the Apostles came to offer the crowd a work of the Spirit of God. I want you to notice what it is. "When the Apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit." So, apparently, at this point, the Holy Spirit is not coming at the time of salvation. He's coming after the Apostles bring him. So the Spirit in this passage is applied by the, the Apostles subsequent to salvation. That has nothing to do with necessarily what happens later, but at that point, that's what's happening. So they get the Word of God, they submit to the Messiah, and then some time later, Peter and John bring the Spirit as though he comes in a box or something, and they give them the Spirit of God. Okay, so that the Apostles are the monitoring throttle that allows the Spirit of God to come to people.
Now, what's interesting is later on in the New Testament, we're going to see a reversal of that. But right then, that's what happened. Remember, this is not an instruction that that's how the church is supposed to work. This isn't an, this is a narrative of that's what happened. And John is later gonna say, "As many of us as have the Spirit of God, we are the sons of God." So if that's true, as many as have the Spirit of God are the sons of God, it must be synonymous with the time of your salvation, or there would be people, look, that's not true. Back here, these people were sons of God through Jesus Christ, but they didn't have the Spirit of God. But later on, in First John, he's going to make that point. So how can that happen?
For generations, from the time of the fall all the way up through the time of the Gospels, first presentation, people, people didn't have the Spirit in a permanent way. Saul had the Spirit of God come on him and leave, come and go. It would be neat if we could go and then Acts 1 started and the Spirit switched to this, but that's not how it goes. It goes more like this: there's a transition period in the book of Acts where the old method of receiving the Spirit of God in a temporary way still seems to be in effect. But this time, instead of being come and go, it's you don't get him until somebody brings it. And it, this goes on through the book of Acts, but it doesn't go on through the Epistles. You start to see it change during the time of the book of Acts. Why? Because there's a transition period that's going on as God is giving his word in a different way.
I would make the same argument that the number of signs and wonders that are done in a culture is directly correspondent with how long the gospel has been there and how currently it's been there. So, for instance, in the Asian cultures where the gospel is not as well received and has only in the last few generations, we've only learned the language of honor and shame in the last 50 years to be able to explain the gospel well. Now, Hudson Taylor had done it before in China, it had been done, but we lost a lot of that knowledge and we didn't seem to be able to really get the gospel into the mainline of Asian culture until recently. I would not be surprised if I were you, in an Asian context, where you saw miracles you never saw in church in the States. Don't be surprised if God goes into Central Africa or Central America or South America and does things in a more profound way. It's not because he can't do them here. It's because that's no longer the gospel has been here. It's not necessary for us to have this. In First Corinthians, Paul says, "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I did childish things. Then I grew up." The childish things he's talking about are the signs, wonders, and tongues. He says, "In the beginning, I needed that stuff. Now I don't need it." So my argument would be, after a couple of hundred years of gospel saturation and publishers of all kinds of Christian books, we don't necessarily need the high level. However, go to Japan where that doesn't exist, where there's very few people in the room who have encountered the power of Jesus Christ, and expected transition to be going on there that isn't going on here. That's what I'm saying.
I think that's, I think this is a transitional period. And we tend to be the kind of people that think God throws a switch and everything changes. But really, if you think about it, that's not really what happened. He's, he's the transition period here is two things: Christians only talk about the signs and wonders, but there's a huge transition, a monumental transition of the veil being dropped on Israel as the curtain is rising on the Gentile. It took time. And why is it so important in chapter 8 to mention that? Because this is the first time we're getting into marginal Jews, Samaritans, and you see the curtain going down on Israel while it's rising on a marginally Jewish population. And by chapter 9, we're gonna start into the Gentile population as the gospel goes out. Those who have walked with God for generations among the Jewish people, their eyes are growing dark. It's a direct correspondence, and that's the transition.
Now, how does that work that the Spirit of God would come as a result of the Apostles? I don't know. I don't know. I know this: later on, it will no longer be necessary for an apostle to bring you the Spirit to get the Spirit, or John couldn't say, "As many as have the Spirit of God, we are the sons of God." So when, when we're dealing with the transition, don't let the transition bother you. It's not true. But there's also another thing going on here. You and I are not living through a time when the darkening is happening in the Jewish eyes. We're just, we just sort of anticipate it's harder to get Jews to understand the gospel. It is. Why? There's a darkening there. They don't see it. They see Christianity as discontinuous with Moses. They see it as a separate religion. So my friends will just say, "That's fine for you, but I'm Jewish." Now, keep going in the story.
Because what is interesting is the Apostles came to offer the crowd the Holy Spirit's baptism in 14 to 17, and Simon offers money to become one of the dispensers of the Holy Spirit. And that's what you see in verses 18 and 19. "Simon saw the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the Apostles' hands. He offered the money, saying, 'Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.'" What you need to see is, I understand churches that therefore think the way to get the Holy Spirit is to call in each generation certain numbers of people's apostles and then have them lay hands on people. And that's where you get the televangelists to hitting people and them getting the Spirit. This doesn't instruct you to do it. And nowhere in the New Testament will you find instructions to dispense the Spirit of God. It tells you that's what was happening. But every time in the book of Acts, somebody does something, some church makes a theology that that's how you have to do it. So Peter and John were passing by, and their shadow was passing by, and some people were healed. And so what we ought to do is have guys with their shadows healing people with their shadows. Or somebody else will say, "Well, they were, they were praying over people's hankies." So you should send me your hanky and I'll pray over it. Those are not instructions. Those are narratives. And when you read a narrative, you don't know if you're supposed to. I'm not saying you don't do it because it's a narrative. I'm saying you don't know if you're supposed to. You wait for instruction in the Epistle to tell you what to do. Because you don't know if this is a fleece testing of Gideon or if this is a commandment of God. You can't tell by the narrative. And some people, all they'll do is get up and they'll preach, "See, look what they were doing, and that's what we need to do." But see that leap? "They were doing it, and therefore we need to do it." Wait a minute, were they doing other things that we don't need to do? And that's the thing you have to ask.
Okay, now here's what's important. You get down to it, and he asks for money, and Peter rebukes Simon and said, "Your heart's not right." Look at verse 20. "Peter said to them, 'May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God through money. You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.'" What is he saying? You're not saved? No, he's not saying that. He's saying, in the matter of giving the Spirit of God to others, you have no right to be a part of imparting something when your heart is wrong. Now, here's the thing: his heart was to manipulate the crowd. It's not just that he was wrong. It's that he had a bad intention toward the crowd. You can't make the argument that you can't be used by God if there's anything wrong in your life. You can't make that argument. First of all, you don't get to tell God when he can use you. Second, I don't know of any time in my life when I've been perfect. So something's always wrong. So either we quit now, or we live with the fact that we're gonna have some area of our heart that's probably not right. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is, you're trying to manipulate, and that's, that means you are outside of what God is going to use. In other words, God will not take, he will not elevate you so that you can become profound in the church. He will elevate you so that Jesus can. But if you're about you, you're not about Jesus, and you're not going to be able to do both at the same time.
What's interesting is he offered money, and so what does Simon do? He calls on him to, or Peter who calls on him to repent and seek God's forgiveness and freedom from sin's captivity. That's what verses 22-23 are. He says, "In verse 21, you have no portion or right. Verse 22, therefore, repent of this wickedness, and pray to the Lord, if possible, that if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you, for I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity." It is possible to have signed on to Messiah but still be gripped by sins of your past. It is possible, however, it's because you didn't repent of the sins of your past. If you want to drag back the old man and make him strong in your life, he'll be strong in your life. Whichever dog you feed is the one that will win.
So, bottom line here is verse 24. "But Simon answered, 'Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.'" What's interesting is Simon asked them to pray for him before they left. And it says, "So when they solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem and were preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans."
Now, here's what's interesting. Right in the heart of the movement of God, the evil intention of somebody, or the wrong intention, or the misguided intention, however you want to say it, of Simon drops right in the middle. Expect that to happen in your ministry. Right about the time you start to get in stride, people are starting to come, you're starting to see people saved, it's starting to get exciting, a high-needs person will set off a bomb right in the middle. That is what is going to happen, and you need to be prepared to then address it.
Now, notice Peter addresses it. How direct was Peter in his address? Yeah, I super direct. Yeah, I think that's a good word. Like, yeah, you have nothing to do with this. Repent. Your heart is not right. Next, you know, seriously. Here's what you don't do. You can't coddle people's evil. You can't do it. You're just derailing your ministry. And early on in the ministry, what people do is they coddle people because they don't want to lose one. You know what happens? You can have 10 people come to Christ, and if one of them is living with an evil agenda, they can actually destroy the whole work from within. If you were the enemy, wouldn't you bring in somebody for a reason other than the right reason and have them look like they're gonna be really, and have them identified with, and then have them blow up something in the middle? Wouldn't you try that as a strategy? That's the strategy the enemy is used. It doesn't mean say Simon was unsaved. It means Simon was uncertain. But there's a difference too. That's why I always say there's two kinds of people: those who know God, those who don't think because they need to. And then there's two kinds of believers: those who are surrendered and those who aren't. And you try to move yourself from darkness to light with the gospel, and then be moved to a place where you're surrendered, obedient.
Let's go down to the last part of the chapter in 26 to 40. There are some unlikely burdens that come up. People from the unknown agendas of God, you suddenly feel compelled by God to minister to people that you otherwise didn't see. I'm about to get nicer. I was pretty hard on Simon. Now I can be a little nicer, okay? Because though he's gonna be depressed if I stayed mean.
Look at this. Verse 26 says, "An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, 'Get up and go south on the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.' This is a desert road, that is a road that goes down into the Negev or desert." So he got up and he went. And there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure, and he had come to Jerusalem to worship.
I want you to right next to verse 27, Leviticus 21, verses 18 to 20. In this case, the, the rabbis considered the prohibition against crushed testicles the same thing as removed testicles. That's what they said. So as a result, he is a castrated individual, which makes good sense for his job. If he's in charge of her harem of women, it makes good sense to have a person who's castrated. At the same time, it means that if he wants to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but he shows up at the temple, the rabbis interpreted that to be crushed, and therefore he couldn't get in. So he could go as far as the gate of the temple, but he could not go in.
There are two kinds of proselytes. A proselyte is the word for a person who stands under the umbrella of Judaism. When you're not born a Jew, you don't become a Jew. You're born a Jew, you die a Jew. But if you want the blessings of standing under the umbrella of the Jewish people, you can be a proselyte, and that is you can sign on to do Jewish things, if I can say it this way. And he tries to do them, but he can only do some of them because of something that was chosen for his body before he was old enough to make the choice. So here's a guy who isn't actually acceptable to God under the Jewish program. You see what's happening here? Samaritans weren't acceptable to God because of prejudice. This guy's not acceptable to God because of his body. Can he do anything about that? No. He can't go get replacements. So the bottom line is, he's stuck with being unacceptable to God, just like if I was born a Samaritan and wanted to follow the God of Abraham, I'm stuck with being born a Samaritan. Do you see the Gospel as it's pressing down in persecution is beginning to go out to people that were disenfranchised by Judaism?
And so here's what I want you to see in verse 26. I think 26 is a nudging principle. What's the nudging principle? God told him a direction, but not a purpose or a destination. "Get up, go south. Get on that road." He told him a direction, but he didn't tell him what it was going to be for. So here's the thing: it may happen in your life that God nudges you to do something, but you don't know where it's going. That's not unbiblical. It's biblical. Don't wait until you understand it all before you're obedient. Okay? Be obedient, you'll understand more.
The second thing I would say is that there's a certain kind of observation principle. In verse 27, Philip obeyed and kept his eyes on the people God brought in his path. So it says, "So he got up and went. There was this Ethiopian eunuch, and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, and he was returning." Verse 28: "And sitting in his chariot." Listen, the reason Philip shared the gospel with the Ethiopian eunuch is because he was paying attention to who was there. Was this the guy you would likely give the gospel to? No. By the way, it was fairly obvious what his job was, and it was completely obvious where he had come from and what nationality he was. So it wasn't like he didn't have to wear a sign that says, "I'm a eunuch" for everybody to know that. Okay? His job precluded what he was. It was in the title of his work. So is that somebody Philip would have been thinking, "Gee, that's a great person for the gospel because he happens to be Ethiopian, not Jewish, and he happens to be a eunuch, not able to go in the"? Does that sound like your first person you'd go to? And down? Now, so people that are disenfranchised, the gospel begins to pick up with. But here's the observation principle: God may put you in a place and you may not know what you're doing there. What are you supposed to do? Be aware. Open your eyes. I have this happen to me. I can't tell you how many times a minister, I end up in the hospital, I go to visit somebody, and they're not in the room. Now, I happen to know that I prayed before I left and I asked God to send me there to do something. So I got there. So what's my next thing to do? Run back to the car and go home? No. The next thing to do is stop and go, "Lord, I'm here, but the patient's not. Nobody seems to know where they're, they're out for tests or whatever. What am I doing here? I'm here in obedience. I know you want me here. Who am I here for?" And so you just, you just quietly begin to open your eyes. First thing I do is check the bed next to them. Why? Because it's pretty obvious. So I'll walk in and I'll say something like this, "But I noticed your your roommate's gone. Do you know anything about that?" "Well, I think they went down for tests." "Really? So what are you in for?" "You know, the old prison thing." And they talk to you. "Yeah, I'm their pastor. I thought I'd stop by and pray with them. Is there any any needs that you have that I can pray for you for?" And then they begin to tell you their story. Now, that's an easy one. If they're in their own room, then go out in the hallway, start looking around. The observation principle is, if I'm there and God told me to be there, and I know I'm there in obedience, I don't know what I'm there for. So I have not because I asked not. So ask, "What am I doing here?" When I got to Sebring, I started asking that. I did. I came from Jerusalem. I knew God wanted me to come back. I knew I needed to be here with my parents. And I thought, well, no, what am I going to do now? What am I doing here? And honestly, was several friends around me that began to say, "Well, what is it that you really feel called to?" "Disciple-making." "Good. How do you do that in Sebring?" "I don't know." Okay. And you were born right there. Now, here's the thing. Yeah, that's really corny, isn't it?
Um, banana verses 28 and 29. I want you to look at an open door principle. What's the open door principle? When you read verses 28 and 29, he's guy's reading. He's reading Isaiah. The Spirit said to Philip, "Go up and join this chariot." That is, run alongside the chariot. Okay, what, what is the open door principle? Yeah, stop worrying about whether or not you think they ought to be the people that you're going to, and start asking, is there a sign that their heart is open to the gospel? What is the sign that his heart was open to the gospel? It's not the sitting in a chariot part. It's the happens to be reading the prophet Isaiah. You need to remember something: in antiquity, there was no such thing as silent reading. Augustine, much after this time, St. Augustine, they said of him, "He's so brilliant, he can read without moving his lips." So you did not know that you're all brilliant by ancient standards. But in antiquity, reading meant out loud. So as he's reading, everybody can hear what he's reading. If you picked up this, you would say, "Philip, proclaim Messiah in Samaria to crowds." And that's what you'd be doing. So this guy is sitting there reading Isaiah out loud. How does he know this is the person God is pointing him to? Because the guy's reading scripture. That's a sure sign he has some interest in what's, what's biblically true.
Now, the other thing is in verses 30 and 31. I think there's a curiosity principle. Philip began with a question that reached into the felt need of the person he was sharing with. Pay attention to how the gospel is shared. It says, "Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah and said, 'Do you understand what you're reading?'" How can you stop the chariot for a minute? "Do you understand what you're reading?" He said, "Well, how could I unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to come and sit down with him. He asked him a question. "Is that passage speaking to you? Do you understand what it's about?" And the guy said, "Yeah, not really. I think I need some teaching on this. You wouldn't happen to be, you know, running alongside my chariot because you're an expert in this, would you?" But here's the thing: one of the first things you can do is ask a person how you can help them in their journey. That's what you can do. You can say, "I am a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I want to know how I can help you." So the person who's waiting on you at the restaurant, you say, "I'm about to pray for thanking God for my food. Is there anything you need prayer for?" And can I tell you how many times they will tear up over you? They'll start tearing up and tell you about their sick child at home. "I had to leave my child sick to come to this job because I need the job, and I'm worried about my child." All right, and let's pray for your child. That's what we're gonna do. Now, you're only there to do what you're there to do. Frankly, God may have you there more for that than the meal. You probably get a meal somewhere else. You're probably even gonna hurt if you miss a meal. Okay? So I know I'm not gonna hurt if I miss a meal. So here's that, here's the thing. You look for somebody who has spiritual sensitivity.
And then I think what's interesting is look at the starting point. In verses 30 to 35, Philip began with the very passage the man was searching because it was especially relevant to his needs. Isaiah 56 is about eunuchs. You might want to make a note of that, by the way. Why is Isaiah 56? Since it's different than the one he's reading in Isaiah 53? Why is that relevant? Think Isaiah for a minute. Isaiah was not a single book. What was it? Up your number, eight different scrolls. And here's the thing: 53 and 56 are in the same scroll. In other words, the writer gives you a remiz, a hint of what it was he was reading. But he was reading that scroll because it was the scroll mentioned eunuchs. So he, he comes into him, and the guy is reading the 53 on his way to the 56 because that's about him. Okay? There's a reason why it's happening. And so what I think is interesting is that in 32 to 35, the passage he's reading was Isaiah 53, and he was a lamb led to the slaughter, and he's going through this, this passage. And what I think is kind of interesting when you're looking at verse 32, 33, 34, 35, he's in Isaiah 53:7, he's in Isaiah 53:8. But I don't think that's where he's going, but I think that's where the gospel could easily be shared.
"The eunuch answered Philip and said, 'Tell me, verse 34, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of someone else?' And Philip opened his mouth, began from this scripture, and he preached Jesus to him." So it was clear that Isaiah 53, from the perspective of the Apostles, was about Jesus. You're not wrong, by the way. I read an article written by a seminarian not long ago that said, "Yeah, that's just wrong. Isaiah 53 shouldn't be applied to Jesus." Here's the thing: the Apostles thought it should be. Okay? So one of the things you want to do is you want to look at how did they use scripture? What did they understand it to be?
What's interesting is verse 36. "As they went along the road, they came to some water." And the eunuch said, "Look, water. What prevents me from being baptized?" What is his question? "I could get all the way up to the mikveh baths in the temple, but they wouldn't let me in because I was castrated." As a result, here's my question: Does Jesus accept me in a way the temple didn't? That's the question. It's not a question about immersion, by the way. They immersed. It was the only way that they did it up to that time. That's not the issue. The issue isn't, "Hey, you know, I want to get baptized in the name of Jesus, but I need a big puddle." This is a big puddle. The issue is, will you let me become one of your people? Does Jesus truly accept me when he wouldn't accept, when Judaism would not accept me as a deformed man?
Now, what's interesting is there's a critical truth. Philip had to stay with the man long enough to carefully work with the broken heart of the man and allow him to experience God with a whole heart. So in verse 36 to 40, here's what's going on. Philip doesn't just give him the gospel and then beam up. Philip gives him the gospel. And in verse 30, by the way, verse 37 is not in your best manuscripts. That's why it's in brackets. You need to be careful about that verse. I don't think it belongs there. But in verse 38, "And he ordered the chariot to stop. They both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing."
God took Philip and beamed him up. What's that? No, he went to Azotus, it's another city. So God did a little beam up, and he beamed him up from that place over to Azotus. And it says, "Philip found himself at Azotus. As he passed through, he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea." So he was there, and then he wasn't. Why? Why did God? Why didn't they just have a conversation, kiss each other, or hug each other and say, "You know, send me a postcard, let me know how you're doing in the Lord, you know, boy, by chariot, boy"? Why, why did I beam him up? Because that guy just saw the power of God. Chapter 8 is all about the manifest presence and power of God. That's what it's about. Early in the chapter, people are getting healed. Midway through the chapter, the Spirit is being brought by Peter and John, and people are experiencing the Spirit of God. Partway through the chapter, Simon is trying to buy it. At the end of it, Philip is experiencing God's use of his manifest presence and power in the life of an Ethiopian eunuch. Is this a commandment that we should run around trying to get beamed up? No. Is it a restriction that God can't do that? No. He can, and he may, and you may find that God provides for you a helper that's suddenly gone. That can happen. I don't have.