Automatically Generated Transcript

Tonight, I'm actually doing a repeat of something across the different decades I've always tried to include in. And it is an example from the Book of Acts as to how you can counsel somebody, how you can lead a person to Christ, how you can be involved in evangelism. There are a number of varied settings in which you might find yourself, but if you have this as an example of what Philip did, then it's a very good way to let you know how to go. And so it's in the Book of Acts and it's a part of the record of what Philip did when God interrupted him doing what he thought he was going to continue as far as he was one who was one of the evangelists of the early church and he was busy having a real humbleness. He was on the ding of a crusade in Samaria and God told him to go out into a desert road in order to meet one individual. And the very first thing that we learn about this is that in God's economy of things, he doesn't go by the numbers. He doesn't go by the numbers that sometimes we think are very important. And Philip knew the humility of having to leave where he thought he was being a big success and to go out into a desert road. and Philip knew the humility of having to leave where he thought he was being a big success and to go out into a desert road in order to meet one individual. And Philip knew the humility of having to leave where he thought he was being a big success and to go out into a desert road where there wasn't much likelihood of of there being much happening. Except for the fact that when God leads you He always has a plan. And so in Acts 8, and we'll put it up on the screen, the passage that was read in the Bible reading, It said, the angel of the Lord said to Philip... Now be aware of the fact that the description of an entity, a person, called the Angel of the Lord, is how the Bible referred to an appearance of God although not always declaring who he is. You call this a theophany. And if you believe that it is the second person of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, then it's a Christophany. And that just means an appearance of Christ, usually a pre-incarnate appearance, but in this case, this is after Jesus has come to earth. And so we don't know whether it represents the Holy Spirit or whether it represents Jesus as a post-time of being on earth, so he has a body, or is it just an angel representing God in general. Well, the angel of the Lord said to Philip, Rise and go toward the south, to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza now. This was commonly known as a pretty, a road not often travelled. And it was out into the desert regions. Now, by the way, the way, when the scriptures talk about desert, or when sometimes our translations word it as wilderness, they're not referring quite like the Sahara Desert where there's just sand dunes, or referring to much of the barren country within Australia where there's really not much there to be found. But it's just talking about a way, a way from the populace. It was nonetheless, though, a desert road where there wasn't much to be found. This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And when you find an example in the scriptures of someone doing something and God being in it, it's always a good opportunity for us to notice what happens because this is not just a happenstance that he took a bit of a trip, you know, guessing what to do with himself. But this was led of God. Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. When you read through the pages of the book of Acts, one of the interesting things to notice is that the people being recorded, it might just tell of what they were just doing naturally or it might tell of them being led, led of the Spirit. And it's a part of why we believe that true Christianity is one that isn't just a matter of people having a certain outlook and putting it into action only. There are times in our Christian lives when we do simply live out what are our beliefs. But there's also an aspect of Christianity that involves the actions of the Holy Spirit guiding us to do some specific thing. And often that specific thing is something that is unique to whatever comes about. And so, it becomes a very good example for us. He rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch. Now an Ethiopian meant that he was from Ethiopia, but it also meant that he was of the nation of Ethiopia. He'd be a black man and he would be someone who was a part of a very impressive, strong nation down there at the top of Africa. A eunuch means that he was a castrated man. They were fairly cruel in those olden days. And he had been castrated in order that he could be taken up by the administration of the country and not be distracted by what happens when people are not castrated. Sometimes they would get people to look after the harems of the king. Or in this case, it might be to relate to the queen who was the chief person leading the country. But he was a eunuch. And there was a lot of suffering in his personal life that came about because of that. He had a very big job. He was from the court. He was an official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. And he was in charge of all of her treasure. So he's a person who's been treated to be castrated in order that he could be trusted to look after the queen's treasure. He'd come to Jerusalem to worship. Now that means something. People didn't take a tour to go to Jerusalem to worship unless they had been somehow or other converted to Judaism as a religion. And he would make a regular trip to Jerusalem. We don't know this for sure, but we do suspect that he's a person that has joined the Jewish religion believing it had something to offer. The only trouble was, as we'll learn later, that because of his castration, there were rules in the Jewish religion that people who'd been castrated or had been maimed couldn't go into the chief of the worship activities. They could only go partially into the performance of things in the temple. And that was his problem, one of his problems. Anyway, he was returning, having visited Jerusalem, and he was seated in his chariot. We don't understand about that chariot whether it was a horse-drawn thing or whether it was a bunch of slaves who had poles across their necks. They were sitting on their shoulders and his little place to sit was sitting in the middle. And we don't really know how fast our friend Philip had to run to do what the Spirit told him to do. And he was returning, sitting in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Further evidence that he was someone who was a convert to Judaism, Isaiah being one of the major prophets of the Old Testament. The Spirit said to Philip, Philip, go over, and turn us to the next bit please, go over and join this chariot. And so Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet. Now here we do have a picture that if it was a horse-drawn one, it was a bit of running that Philip had to do to get alongside, even if it was only a group of men walking with poles across their shoulders. Nonetheless, to get alongside, and he's come from the side, as it were, he has to run to get alongside. But the command of the Spirit of the Lord is to join this chariot, which meant that he had to come alongside it. Why did God get him to come alongside that way? I know if I were the person who got the instruction to talk to someone in that chariot, I would have run ahead and gotten on the road where the fellow had to come along and I'd stick up my hand and get them all to come to a stop. That would be a lot more economical on my part. But no, he was told to go and join the chariot. And the language means, he was asked of the angel that he would run alongside or walk alongside so as to not stop it being as it was of itself. And Philip ran and he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, now my first point tonight from this passage, if you're going to counsel someone and they come and say, I'd like to bend your ear, can you listen to me? Is that you've got to start it by listening. Or if you're interested in being able to speak the gospel to the people who live next door, you've got to find some way to be alongside them where they're in a natural scenario and you can listen in to where they're at. And that's my first point. If you're going to be someone who's good at counseling, you've got to listen in to where the person is at. And so he asked the question, do you understand what you're reading? The Ethiopian was reading from Isaiah the prophet. And he asked the question which invites the Ethiopian to keep in the book of Isaiah but to explain how he's experiencing it. And one of the things you do when you're trying to lead a person to Christ is to ask, is to realize just how important it is that you do that leading of them to come to Christ from the scriptures. And if they've already got their head in a certain passage, that's not a bad place to start. One of the biggest problems we have in evangelicalism in our further to somehow have a testimony, to have a witness to a person that we often look for the opportunity to tell them what we've done or how we experienced or what happened to us. And sometimes when you train people to be a part of a counseling scene after a crusade, I used to have that job at Youth for Christ annual rallies down the Gold Coast and be in charge of what happened when the people responded to become Christians. They'd be given to me and I'd have to get my counselors to get alongside them, usually one counselor to one person. But the training that they needed to have before they could do that well, was to not start with or not get onto their testimony to the person. I remember one crusade up here in what now is Griffith University when it was back as a CAE, Mount Gravatt CAE, and we used that venue. And there were people who were coming forward to respond to the gospel. And then what I would do is that I'd walk in amongst the counselingers that went on just to see what was happening. There's one particular very enthusiastic girl, 20-year-old perhaps at that age, who had a method. She was used to talking to people about coming to Christ, but her method was to tell them her testimony. It was a fairly dramatic sort of storyline that she had and the people would listen. And then she'd invite them to pray with her, hoping that they'd have some sort of similar story. Well, I have to confess, I am... intervened to get a different idea that when you counsel someone, don't base what they are going to be asked to do, which is to respond and pray and come to Christ, based on what happened to you. You want to get them basing what they do on the scriptures. And so if the first thing that you do with a person is to listen to them, the second one is to speak to them from the scriptures. So the first two, the first two steps are get into a position where you can listen in to where they're at. And the second one is speak to them from the scriptures. You want whatever you lead them to do, to go in a prayer, to come to Christ, you want it to be based on what the Word of God says and not, well, it happened to that fellow who counselled me and it should happen to me. You don't want it based on your testimony, you want it based on the Word of God. And so that's why, Philip asked, do you understand what you're reading? The man replied, how can I unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come on up and sit with him. Now this is the next thing to notice in the steps, that when you're dealing with someone and seeking to lead them to Christ, it may be that there's a formal scenario that's put you as a counsellor of them and you have a lot more freedom actually to travel along the track to do it if it's what was expected of you to do as a counsellor. But there are many occasions when you get talking to someone just casually and it's even more important in those occasions where it's a casual opportunity. Maybe you sat down at a bus stop and someone came and sat next to you and there are a lot of very friendly people who make a little comment or say something to get you talking and they get talking and you can take the opportunity to go through these steps first, first one was to listen in to where they're at. So what you've got to do is get them talking. Whatever you do, just because you're good at talking to people, take over the conversation and they're going yes, yes, yes. But you haven't had the opportunity to listen in to where they're at. You've been busy claiming the leadership of the conversation. And some of the most extroverted people are not very good at leading people to Christ because they've missed that step of learning how to listen. So you've got to listen in to where the person is to get a proper discernment as to how to speak to them. Well, he, Philip, is asking him some questions and he's answering, how can I understand unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. And one of the things you've got to train yourself if you're going to be someone that leads others to Christ is to be able to listen in to the little come on hints. Yes, keep talking. Those things where people show that they have an interest and they want you to keep going. Sometimes if you're dealing with someone who's a person that you know and the conversation turns to something that gives you a good opening to say something and you say something and you can see in their faces that they really got a shock at what you've just led on. But then what you need to do is work out whether they want you to go on talking. Because you may be better off to let them stew on what they've heard and then for them to give some, yes, okay, keep talking. Whether it's going to be another occasion or whether it's going to be on that one that they are prepared to listen further. I remember going to a coffee shop and there was a young man who was studying physics at the university which was my favourite subject. And he told the story of what happened and he was referring back to his last year of school where there was, there was a Christian girl, I happen to know the Christian girl, who was busy witnessing to a lot of different people. And he and his science friends, they were in a circle talking about atomic bombs, talking about World War III if it ever happened. They were enjoying the idea of explosions everywhere and how big were the fusion bombs and they were using their physics knowledge in the talk. And this girl walked by there, and she overheard them laughing and joking about all the millions of people being blown up. And she just put a foot into their conversation and said, moved by God, I believe. She said, life's worth more than that and kept walking. Well, there was no visible response to her witness. But in the coffee shop where I met this fellow, and he was now, he's at university and he's interested in physics. I suppose I was someone who was the right sort of person to join his conversations. And I got witnessing to him about Christ. And he then told me the story of the girl who interrupted their little laughter group to say life's worth more than that. And it was rather surprising how long that comment of hers was still bringing, in his ears. But it gave me the next thing to say, life's worth more than that. And I could talk about the life, the value of the human soul, the human person, and talk about what happens when you come to Christ, when you discover in Jesus the actual source of real life. You're only half alive when you don't know Jesus. The Bible's very clear. He that has the Son has life, and he that does not, that does not have the Son of God does not have life. And that was my entrance inherited from what that girl had said. But coming down to a later conversation where he was anxious to hear the next thing that he could understand, that young man came to Christ that day. Well, he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now, if he's a very big time official in the Ethiopian leadership of the country, that was a very big invitation to sit with him there. So what does Philip do as our example of how to witness to a person or how to counsel a person? Well, the passage that he was reading was this. Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter. Have you got this? Keep putting it up. Like a lamb before its shearer is dumb or silent. So he opens, not his mouth, a rather strange description of Jesus on the cross. In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? Something the ancient world were very familiar with was the desire of all people to have offspring and to not have any generation offspring coming from you was a terrible thing to be taken away from you. And the eunuch, now you know what a eunuch is. Someone castrated, said to Philip, about whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this? About himself or about someone else? It's from this passage that I learn one of the keys of evangelism when you make up a message to speak to people about the Lord and that is that there's a spiritual happening that can happen when somebody realises about Jesus that he understands them. There's something about the fact of Jesus that he's the one who when people start getting witness to about Jesus being the saviour, he's someone who confronts them. He's the one who comes as the person that knows about every one of us. And Jesus went through this prophecy. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth. Now, in a parallel way, not by being crucified, but by the cruelty that had happened to this man, he had his generation taken away from him and that's actually what he's reading in the book of Isaiah and not knowing how to interpret that he really wants to know. He wants to know about Jesus and I want to tell you something that there is a spiritual movement that happens when you stand for Christ, when you're a person that people know that you belong to Jesus. That what they begin to discern about you, they're not sure what it is. It's actually the presence of Christ in your life. And if you walk with the Lord and you're a person who obeys his word and you go where he tells you to go, if you're a person that you are one of his to be his ambassador, which you are, we all are, then somehow people discern the presence of Christ. In the letters of the Apostle Paul, he speaks about the fact that we are like a saviour, a saviour of Christ to the people we meet. For those who are trying to run away from him, it's like a bad smell, it's like a bad saviour. But for those who need him and are going to be wanting him, they sense Jesus in us. That's actually the secret about having a successful witness is because somehow it's the person of Jesus who is always the success. I learned something about sermons that sermons are exactly the same. That it's not your logic that wins the day, and it's not your eloquence. Sometimes some people have eloquence and some people don't. But what really makes people listen is when in that spiritual realm they discern the person who's talking to them is more than the preacher. There's Jesus, the fragrance of the one who is the most beautiful person of all history. He's the one who understands us more than any other person. He's the one that sees our needs in Jesus. Jesus saw the need of this man travelling back. He'd been up to Jerusalem, no doubt, and had tried to join in, but he discovered something being unique and they didn't let him come too far, too deeply into the Jewish worship. It was a rather hurtful discovery of his. We can put it together that that had happened. And he says, about whom I ask you, who's the person that's here in the scriptures, that's here in the storyline of someone who suffers? Like I have. Different circumstances, of course. But you know, one of the things you do when you witness to a person is about the person of Jesus and how God sent him into the world that he might be someone who would somehow with one hand on the shoulder of the Father and the other hand getting on our shoulders. He's the mediator. The Bible says there's only one mediator between God and man. It's the man, Christ Jesus, not just the fact that he's God, don't ever just be a person whose witness is to say, yes, he's God and have him all explained by his deity. I want to tell you that he's the man, Christ Jesus, and the fact that he sympathizes with what we are in our humanity is a part of the gospel. And this man's asking, who's this person that suffered like me? And you know, when people come to Christ, it's often because something has hit them from the scriptures. Just how Jesus is this mediator, and between man and God, he's someone who understands the human condition. He came into the world to do something about it, a human condition of our sinfulness since we're all sinners, and that's why he died on the cross for every person, not for our sins only, but for every sin in the world, for every person in the world. And when you understand that Jesus is in the business of coming to people and they sense that he understands them, and when he went to the cross, he did it for them. You know, it's always interesting to listen to stories of people who come to Christ, and I've done that by you read books about people going to other countries, and one book had the missionary in China who had a very good method he used to get. He'd get someone, a Chinese person, to be his translator, and he'd get them to help translate the scriptures. And he had a, a man who was certainly a non-Christian man who didn't understand Christianity, helping him understand the scriptures in Chinese, teaching the missionary how to be a little bit further down the road of talking it. They went over the spot where Jesus died on the cross for us, not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. And the translator man couldn't take it. He folded up his little Bible that he'd been given, and, you know, in what he was going to carry home, and he went out the door. And as he went out the door, he was overheard to say, he died for me. He died for me. Well, the next time he was on deck to be the translator, he came in, he was a changed person, and he announced to the missionary, I've decided to be, a disciple of Christ. There's something that happens that you can't cause it to happen by your human methods. It's something the Holy Spirit does. But when people take the scriptures that you're leading them with, and they see the truth of the very essence of the gospel, which is how Christ came to die on the cross for us, he took our sin. And when people realize that something has already happened deep in them, they're really close to getting someone who gets properly converted. Well, about whom I ask, does this fellow speak? About himself or someone else? And Philip opened his mouth, usually at this point in this message, and I've given it many times. Some of you older ones have probably heard it before. Then Philip opened his mouth. You have to explain that saying because it's a cultural way of meaning Philip took over. It's a cultural way of saying that. It's a cultural way of saying but this is a point where he takes over. And when you're learning to counsel a person, don't believe a lot of secular counseling things that you ought to get the answers to their problems out of their mouths. That's not a bad technique to start off with. When it comes to that which will save a person, there's a moment for you to have to take over and to deliver. the truth of the gospel. When it says Philip opened his mouth, it means he began to speak. And he opened his mouth and beginning with this scripture, he didn't start with his favourite passage, but being with this scripture that had spoken to the man, he told him the good news about Jesus. This is, in essence, what you've got to do. Speak from the scriptures, the gospel, the good news is another way of saying the gospel, speak from the scriptures, the gospel, and focus it on the person of Jesus. Don't go off on a side track of some of the aspects of the gospel that might be good to give in a theological college, in a lecture, but focus on the big point. What is the big... Oh, I've asked the question wrongly. What is the big point? Let's see if I can draw the answer out. Why is that the wrong question? What is the big point? Well, I've articulated it wrongly. Only in one word. What is the big point? Do you know what I'm getting at? I'm being a little bit... Yes. Thank you, thank you very much. Who is the big point? And true Christian witnessing the people that brings them to come to know God is when you've understood that it's who he is. And when you can declare to people who Jesus is, and there's a spiritual thing that happens, don't forget you never witness to people without the Holy Spirit being involved in the whole thing. You know, this is amazing. If you help me on airplanes, when I'll be sitting next to someone I'm wanting to talk, but what I had to learn to do is to count on the conversation having an extra person on my side. On my side. And that who is the Holy Spirit. And when you count, on him, to be in the conversation, it is surprising and amazing how he directs the traffic. And the other fellows are aware that something is going on to him by the Holy Spirit. Beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news of Jesus. That's what successful witnessing does. And as they're going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, see, here is water. Now this was a desert road, and this must have been a flash flood or something for there to be water. But the circumstances under God's hands had allowed this water to be there. And he says, what stops me, what prevents me from being baptized? And we suspect, we don't know for sure, but the commentators in this passage, some of them believe that when he was in Jerusalem, he wanted to make a move. You had to get baptized to be a proper Jew. And he'd been held up from getting too far into the Jewish religion. And he said, you know, I'm not going to be baptized. I'm not going to be baptized. I'm not going to be baptized. I'm not going to be baptized. I'm not going to be baptized. I'm not going to be baptized. I'm not going to be baptized. Perhaps it was proselyte baptism. Or maybe he'd overheard some Christians and had seen some of them baptizing people. I don't know. But he was aware of the fact that maybe he wouldn't be allowed to make a confession of Christ. Because people think often just the backdrop of understanding is very natural to the flesh or natural to the human being is you've got to do a lot of good things to get accepted. And he's expecting that. He's expecting he won't be allowed because you haven't been long enough for a person interested, you know, or something like that. And what stops me from being baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stop. Now I don't know whether the he is Philip or the man now. But the answer that Philip must have given with a nod of the head or whatever, I don't know, commanded the chariot to stop and they both went down into the water. So this is a believer's baptism in water where you dunk the person. And he commanded the chariot to stop and they both went down into the water and Philip and the eunuch went into the water and he baptized him. And when he came up out of the water he goes on to say that Philip had disappeared. And came up out of the water and Philip actually was picked up and carried to a town. That's called being carried by the spirit. Some of that happened in Indonesia in the revivals that happened in Indonesia. So this is not just a freaky thing the Bible talks about that you don't believe. There is being carried by the spirit that does happen. And when God is in control of his message he steps in. Excuse me, my father did his PhD PhD it was doctoral dissertation on the history of the Christian church. And particularly about the Holy Spirit. It was about the development of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. One of the things he discovered is that where the Christians returned to the gospel miracles happened. Miracles don't always happen they're rather rare actually. But where you stick to the gospel it's amazing how God joins in the act and sometimes that is in the miraculous it's a sign that God is in it. And when you come up verse 39 out of the water he continues to say oh there we are the spirit of the Lord carried Philip away as a spiritual transportation by the Holy Spirit and the eunuch saw him no more but he didn't care he went on his way rejoicing and Philip found himself at Azotus and so as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. What that means is that what that tells me is that Philip went back to a more normal sort of preaching and preached to the people who were there and explained the gospel but what happened with that Ethiopian was a special event. And it's like that in evangelism many times you just do what you've practiced to do and you seek to win people to Christ and you trust that God will get his fruit because he's the one that does it but every now and then if you obey the Lord when he gives you a word or a special leading something turns up that is of him. Those are very precious moments very, very precious moments where Jesus steps in and you can't force that to happen you can't predict it's happening it's just something that God does where his people are obedient to him. What am I wanting to get out of you tonight? If there's any of you who've never been certain of knowing Christ I want you to come and see me afterwards. So I can lead you I'll lead you in a prayer to come to Jesus tonight. But what I really want the bulk of us to do and in our services we get lots of Christian people coming I think Christians like the opening of the word of God that's why we get people coming a lot in our church but what I want you to do what I want to happen what I'm hoping will happen is that you'll make a resolution a resolution that you're going to seek to be like Philip available for the Spirit to lead you if he wants to. It might be you just do your regular thing and do without any big spiritual happenings but every now and then you're available. If God has a person that he wants to talk to I found a little book called Until He Find It it was based on the story line Jesus told of the fellow who had a lost sheep. I found a little book called Until He Find It. It was based on the story line Jesus told of the fellow who had a lost sheep. I found a little book called Until He Find It. It was based on the story line Jesus told of the fellow who had a lost sheep. He'd leave all the sheep from the fold be alone for a little bit but he'd go out and search for the lost one until he'd find it. And the book is about a man who had a special ministry that he felt like Philip to be led to different people and sometimes it'd be just one person in desperate need and he'd be led to leave his home and go out into the night. Or in the daytime go somewhere specific because the Saviour had given him a very specialist ministry of finding lost sheep and then he'd help them whatever was the need but also teach them how to come to Christ. You know what would be marvellous for me is that someone here felt from tonight's message that Jesus was speaking to them that he wants to talk to them that he wants you to be available to be someone who goes whether that's just in the city or whether that's to your friends someone like that girl in high school who walked by a group of boys who were acting like boys about all the people being blown up by atomic bombs that she was moved she had a ministry just to be moved like this. She didn't make it up she just heard their speech stepped into the conversation moved by the Spirit she said life's worth more than that. You would be amazed to how powerful it is when Jesus uses you with people. They think more of you than they all do they don't know about us Christians in the hands of Jesus we do a lot of things that really is him but I'd be really thrilled if someone here someone here started a ministry because you made yourself available to Jesus to be someone he could lead in extraordinary circumstances just to one person that he was wanting to find one sheep that's out there lost somewhere maybe broke its leg poor thing can't get up from the ground can't get back but you're the person that Jesus would use just like he did Philip and that'd be a tremendous success of tonight but if you don't know the Lord for yourself and you want to tonight it isn't actually so far beyond your grasp if you come simply humbly that you don't deserve anything but to Jesus has offered his grace offered his help offered to come to be yourself and to be a saviour if you let him endure tonight just come and talk to me and I'll lead you in the word of prayer that can happen for you let's have a moment to finish the message Heavenly Father I thank you I thank you for Lord your work through Philip the angel of the Lord it says I don't know whether that was a Christophany but thinking that you're you are now endowed with a human body Lord I think it's more like it more likely a theophany an appearance of God just an appearance God doesn't have that appearance but he can put it on to reach out or to speak to a Christian Lord I pray that you would find yourself some tonight who will be ones that you can use like Philip I ask it in Jesus name Amen.