All right, find Acts 8 in your New Testament. This is part two of our new series called Arise and Go, Following the Spirit to Your One. Acts 8, get there in my Bible. And today, the title of the message is Arise and Go to an Inconvenient Place. Our text will be Acts 8, verses 26 through 39. I'll read those as we go just in the interest of time instead of reading the whole thing now. But let me tell you how Acts 8 begins. The key figure is God, and the secondary figure is one of the deacons in the first church. His name was Philip. And Acts 8, verses 5 through 8 read this way. They won't be on your screen, I don't believe. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. That verse is what every missionary ought to do. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city. I've got to tell you, if you're Philip and you're preaching and everybody's obeying the sermon you're delivering, and God is coming in signs and wonders and people are being delivered from demonic influence and their diseases are being healed, and everybody's doing it, if you're Philip, you're like, I'm going to stay here until all the sermons wane and the crowds begin to die out. I'm not leaving this. You keep that in mind because Acts 8 opens with revival in Samaria. Crowds are gathering and miracles are happening and people are believing. And then suddenly God tells Philip in verse 26, Arise and go. By the way, I didn't just come up with some clever phrase for this series. The phrase Arise and go shows up in Acts 8, and then again in Acts 9, that'll be next week. Again in Acts 10, the week following. So sometimes the sermon series just write themselves. He says, Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. And then Luke adds three words. This is desert. Now wait a minute. Leave a revival where everybody's responding and go to a desert road? Leave the crowds for zero to one people? I got to tell you, from a human perspective, that doesn't make much sense to me. But heaven had scheduled a divine appointment on that desert road. And that's the heartbeat of this series, Arise and go. Today it's go to an inconvenient place. Next week it will be go to a difficult person. And the week following it will be go to a different culture. Why? Why do we do this? Because somebody there is your one. Our text will be Acts 8, verses 26 through 39. And I've divided our message today into four truths with larger chunks of scripture from this text under each of the four. So if you're ready and you're still fired up, say yes. Number one, our text teaches that God may lead you somewhere that makes no sense. Go anyway. Here's verses 26 through 28. Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip. We probably shouldn't speed past that. Look, when you're working in God's kingdom and you're... [00:56:00 - 01:04:00] walking with him, you learn to hear his voice, and he'll speak to you in lots of ways. An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south along the road, which goes from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is desert. 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, was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. So it seems to me that Philip receives a very peculiar assignment. Leave the revival and go to the desert. And to me, that command feels strange. It's even a little inefficient in my estimation, because the road was lonely and lightly traveled. Some scholars even suggest that the wording may imply, go do this at midday. Midday is the hottest and least convenient time to travel a desert road, would you agree? So humanly speaking, this looked like the worst possible time and the most dreadful place for evangelism. And don't miss this. The angel never explains why Philip's supposed to go to the road. Philip is simply told, arise and go. Everybody say arise and go. Look, these are our marching orders. And I gotta tell you, to arise and go, that requires faith. The initiative here in Acts chapter 8, in this mission, is entirely with God. Do you see that? Philip is not inventing ministry ideas. He's not having a brainstorming session with his staff going, hey, where are some unusual places we might find sinners? Instead, God's orchestrating the whole encounter. Ian Thomas writes about this, and he jokingly imagines Philip saying, well, what do you expect me to do in the desert? Go and preach to a bunch of goats? Because that's what you find in the desert. But if you look at the text, Philip didn't argue. He arose and went. And behold, the verse says, we could summarize that, he obeyed. And waiting on that seemingly empty, dry desert road was one man whose heart God had already been preparing. Friends, do you understand that God interrupted ministry to a multitude because one man mattered? Sometimes the greatest kingdom work and moments doesn't happen on a stage like this one. Sometimes it's one conversation with one individual. Church, how many of us miss divine appointments because we're waiting for convenient assignments? God, make it easy for me. But the Spirit often works through interruptions. The Spirit-filled Christian has to answer this question, are you willing to be interrupted, and are you willing to be late? And are you willing to be left out? Remember King David, before he was King David, when the prophet came to town? And the prophet says to Jesse, David's father, hey, I got some good news for you. Out of one of your sons, out of all of your sons, one of them is going to be the next king of Israel. And Jesse goes, great, go get all the boys. And he brought all the boys, and in his mind they were all there. But there was one still in the field. What was his name? David, the youngest. David heard the prophet was coming. Why didn't he cause a stir? Why didn't he raise his voice and say, hey, dad, you forgot about me? Because he was willing to be late. He was willing to be left out and waiting for God to direct him and raise him up. And in the same way, go when it disrupts your plans. Go when it feels awkward. Go when it seems inefficient and not the best use of your time, because somebody waiting there is your one. God may lead you somewhere that makes no sense. You should go anyway. Number two, what this text teaches, God is already working before you ever arrive. And because that's the case, we should speak up. Verses 29 through 31 read this way. Then the Spirit said to Philip, go near and overtake this chariot. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, and I want you to circle this question in your Bible. 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. I'm mystified by those verses. First of all, Philip hears the word of God and he runs to do it. And then when he gets there, he doesn't just dive in. He says, even though God told me to go and interact with whoever's sitting in this chariot, I still need to take precaution. I need to have a plan. And I need to gauge this person's receptivity. Everybody say receptivity. Look, I need to take a temperature of his soul and see if this person really is interested in the things of God right now or not. So he hears him and he goes, well, my soul, this guy's reading the Old Testament. By the way, at that time, there was only the Old Testament. This guy's reading the scriptures. Oh, and it sounds familiar. It's the suffering servant passage in Isaiah 53. It's Isaiah 52, 13 to 53, 12, one of the most famous passages in all the scriptures. And even knowing all of that, Philip says, let me test this guy. Do you understand what you're reading? Because if the guy says, I'm a pretty good reader, and who asked you to ask me that? Then he'll know maybe it's the wrong chariot. But if he says something like, well, how would I understand unless somebody who knows better than me tells me? Philip arrives and he discovers something amazing. This Ethiopian eunuch is already reading Isaiah, seeking God, asking questions, and searching for truth. In the business, we call that low-hanging fruit. I mean, this one's ready. God had already been working before Philip showed up. God had gone ahead to prepare the heart of this foreigner for the message. Church, this is very important. Everybody look at me. You are not the Holy Spirit. You are not the fourth person of the Godhead. That means you can't manufacture conviction of sins. I don't even know how to do that. It means that you're not forcing salvation down the throat of a sinner. It means you're stepping into something God's already doing. And I got to tell you about the Ethiopian eunuch. This guy knew a little bit about what [01:04:00 - 01:12:00] It means to be on the outside. He's a eunuch. He's had his manhood removed. Because of that, in the Old Testament, this forbade him from going into the temple area and worshiping. If he even proselytized into Judaism, he could only become somewhat of a Jew. Also because of his condition, he only could hold certain jobs. He's never going to have a family. He's not going to have anything to pass down. He's trustworthy, so he's able to, as a man, serve in the courtyard or the courtier of the queen of the Ethiopians. Her name is Candace. This guy's a foreigner. He's in a place he has darker skin than they all have. He carries a physical condition that historically restricted him from participating among God's people. And listen to me. God was still pursuing him. Do you know that God has a list of people he's going to save? And if he asks you to come up with a list, you'd fail. Because you'd leave people off of it that don't look like you and sound like you and live like you. I'd do the same thing. If this text teaches us anything, it's that there's nobody already disqualified from the grace of God. And possibly, I'm thinking, why is this guy reading the scroll of Isaiah? Because remember, he has the charge over all the treasury of Ethiopia. So he signs the checks. He has the ancient credit cards. He has a lot of money available to him. Now, not everybody had even one scroll. They were very expensive and not really available to the public. You had to be rich and you had to know somebody who could get you a copy. Well, this guy could likely get any copy of the Old Testament Scriptures he wanted. Why did he pick Isaiah? Well, we would say, well, Isaiah 53 is obvious. No, I think it's Isaiah 56. I think he heard a rumor. Isaiah 56, 3-5 in the New Living says this, Don't let foreigners who commit themselves to Yahweh the Lord say, The Lord will never let me be part of His people. And don't let the eunuchs say, I'm a dried up tree with no children and no future. For this is what Yahweh the Lord says, I will bless those eunuchs who keep my Sabbath days holy and who choose to do what pleases me and commit their lives to me. I will give them within the walls of my house a memorial and a name far greater than sons and daughters could give. For the name I give them is an everlasting one. It will never disappear. I think he already had it memorized. Finally, there's a God in this area where I live who hasn't excluded me like everybody else has. I'm a eunuch and He's going to give me a name inside the walls of His house. He's welcoming me in. And then the Spirit says to Philip, a guy he doesn't know, Go near and overtake that chariot. And Philip asks a simple question, and it's designed to gauge whether the eunuch is receptive or not. He says, Do you understand what you're reading? And that's it. It's not a sermon. There's no theological debate he has with the guy sitting in the chariot. It's a conversation starter. Is this guy interested in the things of God at all? Hey, can we talk? Isn't it true that most often Christians overcomplicate evangelism and make it harder than it has to be? Do you understand what you're reading is an example of an ice-breaking question. It's an example of putting a thermometer in the mouth of the person that you want to win and take their temperature. So it goes something like this. Have you ever heard how someone can be reconciled to God? That's an ice-breaker question you could use. Sounds a lot like, Do you understand what you're reading to me? How about this? What do you think happens after somebody dies? And then just wait and see what they say. You'll find out whether they're receptive or not. Here's my favorite one. The only one anybody's ever asked me since I got saved. I always wanted somebody to come up and witness to me. To come up and assume I may not know Christ, love my soul enough, talk to me about the gospel. It's only happened maybe one time. Here's my favorite ice-breaker question anyone's ever said to me. Trevor, has anyone ever taken the Bible and shown you in the Bible what it says about how you can have eternal life? And then you just wait for the response. Do you think there are people around you right now who are quietly hurting on the inside? Do you think there's people in your life who are secretly searching? Do you think there's someone connected to you wondering if anybody has the answers? Speak up. Ask the question. Start the conversation. Take the step. Because God may already be preparing their hearts before you arrive. Truth number three. People don't need more religion, they need Jesus. So open the Bible for them. Acts 8, 32-35 says, The place in the scripture in which he read was this, He was led as sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation, his justice was taken away, and who will declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. End quote. That's taken from Isaiah 53. So the eunuch answered Philip and said, I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of some other man? And then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this scripture, preached Jesus to him. I heard it was said of St. Francis of Assisi, Preach the gospel and if necessary use words. What he meant was, live it if you're going to speak it. I think it's always necessary to use words when you preach the gospel. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ, Romans 1.17. And so we get to Acts 8.32-35, and the Bible says, Philip opened his mouth. Evangelism is heard. Look how prepared Philip was without knowing he needed to be prepared that day. He heard familiar scripture, and the Bible says, beginning with this scripture, he preached Jesus unto him. We are unapologetically a Jesus preaching church. You know the Father points to the Son, and the Spirit points to the Son, and at the end in heaven there's no sun, there's no sunshine needed in heaven and the new earth because the Lamb lights it all up. Jesus is the Lamb. And it's about Jesus. If you've been reading the Bible and missing Jesus, try again. [01:12:00 - 01:20:00] It's about him. Do you believe that? On the road to Emmaus in Luke chapter 24, when Jesus was walking along with two forlorn disciples who thought that the Messiah is never coming back, they don't recognize him. Do you know how they eventually recognize him? Luke 24, 27, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, Jesus expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Moses and the prophets, that's the Old Testament. Jesus says, you know the Bible's about me, right? That's not the only place he said it. John chapter 5, verse 39, to the Pharisees, to the religious leaders, he says, you search the scriptures diligently because in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they which testify of me. Did you know that the Bible is not ultimately about us becoming better people? I'm not going to put you on a treadmill of performance, hang that around your neck as your pastor. The Bible's about a Savior who came for sinful people. In Isaiah 53, where the eunuch was reading, points directly to the Lord Jesus. And I want you to think about the scene Isaiah was describing. There's a suffering servant in Isaiah 53, and he's rejected. He is humiliated on top of his rejection. He's led like a lamb to the slaughter, marched to his death. My question is, in real time, in New Testament time, when this was happening, where were the lepers he had cleansed? Where were the blind and the lame that he had healed as he's being led like a lamb to the slaughter? Where were the thousands that he fed? Where were the twelve who were with him just the night before when he needed him the most? No one stopped and stepped forward to defend him. And I tell you, that's of no consequence because Jesus willingly suffered. Jesus willingly endured injustice. Jesus, on his own accord, went to the cross. Jesus was offering himself as a sacrifice for sinners. He says, no one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord. Do you understand he did that for you? Because of you and for you, with you in mind. You see, Philip explains to the eunuch, Jesus was rejected. Jesus suffered. Jesus died. Jesus rose again. And Jesus fulfills the scriptures. My brothers and my sisters, people do not ultimately need more religion in their life. They need Christ. And fellow believers, we don't have to know everything ahead of time to help somebody. Open your Bible. Pray. Learn how to share the gospel. Even if you don't know how to do any of that, tell your story, what it was like before you met Jesus, what he did for you, and now how he's changed you. Point them to Christ. Because I submit to you, he's still marvelously and effectively saving sinners. Do you agree? Lastly today, one conversation can change a life forever. So invite a response. The final verses of our text are verses 36 to 39. Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch says, see, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized? If you go back and read the earlier verses of our text, you know what you won't find anything about? Said? Baptism. Where did this come from? Well, we infer that Philip shares the gospel with the eunuch and he says, the proper response to the gospel is faith, repentance, and baptism. 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. So he commanded the chariot to stand still. That was the eunuch. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water. Going down into the water as grown men is a commentary about mode of baptism. You got to go into the water to get dunked. You don't to get sprinkled. Isn't that right? And he baptized him. Now when they came up out of the water, another indication of the mode of baptism, Luke just speeds by this. The spirit of the Lord caught Philip away. It's the word as he's raptured. So that the eunuch saw him no more. And the eunuch, you would say, well, that guy freaked out, right? Where did this guy go? No, he went on his way rejoicing. Because let me tell you, nothing's cooler than the joy of the Lord when you get saved. Not even when your evangelist just disappears. You see it? It's right there in the text. When people encounter the real Jesus, can I tell you, they always respond. Appropriately. The eunuch doesn't say, Philip, thank you for the Bible story. I have some things to think about. I'll get back with you maybe someday. No, he says, I know we're in a desert. Let's find some water. The hardest thing to find in a desert. Unless you're God setting up a conversion. And they find some water. He responds immediately. I got to tell you, new believers eager to be baptized. You don't have to twist their arm. You don't have to plead with them. And there's no, well, I need to wait for this time. I'm not ready. Look, if you're not ready to be baptized, you're not ready to be saved. Not ready to be baptized, not ready to go to heaven. Oh, too much? What's the text say? The eunuch's like, find me water in the desert. This outsider, this foreigner, this excluded man, this searching man is now welcomed in Christ. True or false, the gospel removes barriers. Couldn't hear you. Does it remove racial barriers? Religious barriers? Social barriers? Physical barriers? You see, what religion had kept at a distance for this man, Jesus brought near. And then Philip baptizes him, and the eunuch is filled with the joy of the Spirit of God. I want you to think about that. One desert road, one conversation, one act of obedience, one changed life. Never underestimate what God may do through one Spirit-led conversation. Let me illustrate as I close. After World War II, late 1940s, a young German named Hubie came to a Christian ministry in England led by an author that I love, Major Ian Thomas. Hubie's father had been killed while serving in the German army during the war. While Hubie was there in England, he received Jesus as his Lord and Savior and became a Christian, which was awesome. Not long afterward, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, which is a form of cancer. That's not awesome. Doctors initially gave Hubie, late 1940s, only weeks to live. By God's grace, he survived for a few more years. But Ian Thomas said as he observed Hubie that through those years, Hubie had one singular ambition. Now that he had a death sentence, now that he had eternal life, there was only one more thing he wanted. He wanted to lead somebody else to Christ. He wanted to win a soul to Jesus before he died. Well, as it turns out, one Sunday, Ian Thomas met another young man named Jean. [01:20:00 - 01:28:00] Jean was visiting from Belgium. Jean told Ian Thomas, I realize being around all of you, I have not become a Christian yet. Well, Ian Thomas was tied up that afternoon with other appointments and didn't have room in his schedule to talk with Jean right then. So a few minutes later, he found Hubie and he said, hey, there's Jean. He's from Belgium. He needs to know about Jesus. I've got other appointments. Keep an eye out for him. Later that evening, Hubie burst through the doors of Ian Thomas's office, grinning from ear to ear. He said, Major, Jean and I just talked. He's given his life to Christ. Well, Ian Thomas knew that Hubie had one ambition and he knew he'd be excited about it, but this was over the top. So he says, Hubie, you seem especially joyful about this moment. Why does this make you so extra happy? Buckle your seatbelts. Hubie said, because ever since I became a Christian, I've been asking God to let me be a blessing to a Belgian boy. And Thomas asked, why a Belgian boy? And Hubie said, because it was a Belgian in the resistance who shot my father dead. And I wanted to repay a Belgian boy with the gift of life for what a German boy suffered through the death of his dad. The gospel had so changed Hubie that he didn't see an enemy when he looked at Jean the Belgian. He saw his one. That's why you speak up. That's why you start the conversation. You never know what God has already been doing in the person standing right in front of you. You receive that word today? Will you stand to your feet with me? I know we've gone a little longer than we normally do. I hope you don't regret that. If you're on our prayer ministry team, would you come forward and get ready to pray for people? In our prayer ministry, after we adjourn the service, we pray for anyone and everyone about anything and everything. And so we want to pray for you. We've especially trained these folks to pray a little differently than maybe you've ever experienced. And so I encourage you to take advantage of this grace from God, our prayer ministry, after we dismiss. Let's pray together.

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