Can You hear me now?
Divine Destinatinons
Two men and a chariot.
Acts 8:26-40
Do You Hear God’s Voice?
Acts 8:26-29
Do you Understand God’s Voice?
Acts 8:30-35
Are you Obeying God’s Voice?
Acts 8:36-40
Slide 1
Have you ever seen those cell phone commercials where the guy is walking all over town saying Can you here me now? Good. I had that cell phone company a few years ago and the reception at my house was so bad that when I called the company to complain, he couldn’t here me and I was walking all over my lower level trying to get by a window and asking Can you hear me now? But he couldn’t hear me. I had to call back on a land line.
There are times that I think God feels the same way. He speaks to us but we don’t hear him.
Numbers 14:11
11 The LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?
He is speaking but are we listening?
We are going to be continuing in Acts, though at the last minute, because of some things God was speaking to me,
I decided to skip to Acts 8:26-40 (p. 777)
Slide 2
We will return to Acts 5 next week.
Here we are going to read about
2 men whom God speaks to and
ask some questions about our own lives
as we seek to follow what God wants for us.
Let’s begin
Acts 8:26-29
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road-the desert road-that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." 27 So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it."
(from New International Version)
Philip is a man we first meet in Acts 6.
He is one of the seven, one of the first deacons.
He was a man full of the Spirit and wisdom.
When the persecution of the church began, Philip went down to Samaria
Acts 8:4-8
4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. 6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.
It was when he was in Samaria that Philip heard God speak to him.
As we go through this passage today, I want to ask some questions of you. The first is
Do you Hear God’s Voice?
Slide 3
Philip heard God speak to him through an angel and the Spirit.
Acts 8:26
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road-the desert road-that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (from New International Version)
Acts 8:29
29 The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it."
(from New International Version)
He recognized it as a message from the Lord, both through the angel and the Spirit.
God has spoken in many ways in the past.
The author of Hebrews tells us in
Hebrews 1:1-2
1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. (from New International Version)
We see throughout Scripture that God has spoken in many ways.
He has spoken through
A donkey to Balaam
The prophets to Israel
Angels to select individuals
His Spirit
A still small voice or gentle whisper to Elijah (1 Kings 19:12)
He speaks through His word
He speaks through His people.
The point is that God uses many means to get our attention.
Do you hear Him?
There are going to be points where God is speaking clearly. I have had those unmistakable moments in my life where God’s speaking was so clear to me, even if what He wanted me to do was not easy.
Illustration - Karrie
On Friday, I got a call from my sister-in-law.
Her mother had had a stroke and was in the hospital.
Karrie lives in AZ. She is married to Laura’s brother.
She called to see if I would go out to see her mom and pray with her and perhaps share the gospel with her.
Now this week has been a very busy one for me.
I was sharing with Jim on Thursday morning that I had the opportunity this week to talk to and minister to a number of people, but I hadn’t had a chance to work on my sermon at all.
I knew what I would be preaching on but that was about it.
So by Thursday, I had about half the sermon written and by Friday morning I was getting going on the other half when I got this call.
Now, I have to confess that my first reaction was not,
“wow Lord, what an opportunity.
It was more, Maybe I can go out there next week. I have too much to do right now.”
Then I hear that small voice tell me that when pastoring ceases to be about people and becomes about running a church or accomplishing certain tasks, then I am missing the boat on what the Lord called me to.
So as I spoke to Laura, and we talked about her condition, I knew I should probably go out there right then. So I went up there thinking that I would finish up the rest of the sermon Friday night and Saturday.
While I didn’t completely recognize it at the time, God was speaking to me to do something and
He was using my sister-in-law to do it and
he was using Laura and that gentle whisper.
Application
Maybe in your life,
God has been speaking to you and
you haven’t really been hearing Him, like I wasn’t at first.
There are moments that we need to stop and listen.
Philip was a man full of the Spirit and wisdom. It is much easier for us to hear what God is saying when we are following and walking in His ways.
When we are not, it becomes harder.
So, Is God speaking to you? If you are here today, I know He is.
He has something to say to each one of us.
But we need to first begin by Hearing Him
Then a second question you need to ask yourself is
Do you Understand God’s Voice?
Slide 4
Continuing on in Acts
Acts 8:30-35
30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked.
31 "How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
32 The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture:
"He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before the shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth."
34 The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?" 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
(from New International Version)
There are times that we know that God is speaking something to us, but What is it?
Woman Caught in Adultery
Maybe he is speaking the message to you like he spoke to the woman caught in adultery in
John 8:11 by saying
"Go now and leave your life of sin."
Abraham or Philip
Maybe he is speaking the message to you like He spoke to Abraham
In Genesis 12:1 to
Go and do something specific or like he spoke to Philip here.
To those seeking
Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28
That is the spot the Ethiopian Eunuch was in.
He is going along
reading,
wanting to hear from God,
seeking after Him,
but not exactly sure what God was saying to Him.
Is that you today?
Maybe you are recognizing that God is trying to tell you something, but you just aren’t sure what it is.
Wrestling with God
You have been wrestling trying to figure out, but unable to.
Well, good news. God will work to speak clearly to you.
What do you do, though?
That is when we need to open our eyes to
where the Lord has us and
who He has put in our life.
God sends Philip
The Ethiopian Eunuch was hearing but not understanding.
And then God put Philip in his life to help him understand.
Who has God put in your life to help you understand what He is saying?
Maybe it is a family member
Maybe it is a friend
Maybe it is a neighbor
Maybe it is a coworker.
Ask yourself if God has been trying to speak to you through someone lately.
Maybe like the Ethiopian, God wants to draw you into a relationship with Him and He has been speaking through some of your circumstances of late
Like the Ethiopian Eunuch, You have been striving to live the way you think God wants you to.
God honors that by helping you grow in your knowledge and understanding, often by sending someone to help you understand.
Now He has brought you here.
Maybe you are here just for the baptism today.
Maybe a friend invited you out.
Maybe you just strolled in on your own.
Whatever the case, understand this.
It is really God that has you here.
Because He has a message for you and
He wants you to understand it.
He wants you to know and understand
His love for you and
what He did to pay the price for your sins
so you might be able to come to eternal life.
Karrie Con’t
As I went to the hospital Friday, God wanted Karrie’s mom to understand about His love for her and about his provision of eternal life through His
Son Jesus.
So I heeded God’s call and went and shared the gospel message with her.
I told her about my own testimony.
That I was raised in a religious tradition where we went to church but never really understood why we did the things we did.
I explained about relationship
That I knew about Jesus, but did not really Know Jesus.
And I understood then why it was God had spoken to me.
So that I might be able to go out to the hospital and share the saving message of the gospel with Karrie’s mom.
I had heard and now I understood.
For those already Christians
Maybe you are already a Christian and God has been speaking to you on something.
There are times that God is saying something that we really don’t want to hear.
A Christian and sin
Maybe there is some sin issue in our life that God has been trying to get us to turn from and repent of.
There are times that He is
speaking through others that He has put in our life
to lovingly confront us with it
so that we won’t be continuing down the wrong path.
A Step of Faith
Maybe He is speaking through someone else to get you to take your next step of obedience to Him, like in getting baptized.
To see His will Accomplished
Maybe He is speaking through someone else as he spoke through my sister in law to me to get me to go and share the gospel with someone and accomplish His will.
Whatever it is,
Hear God’s Voice and
Understand God’s Voice.
Once you hear it and understand it, you need to finally ask
Are you Obeying God’s Voice?
Slide 5
Acts 8:36-40
36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?" 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
(from New International Version)
The Ethiopian Eunuch heard what God was saying about salvation to him and God had placed Philip in His path to help him understand it.
Now he had a choice.
Was he going to obey the things God wanted for him or not.
What is it that the Lord wants me to do?
For the Eunuch, this was about his salvation.
He needed to receive Christ as Savior by believing in Him in his heart.
In Acts 8:36, the eunuch asks why he shouldn’t be baptized, and in Acts 8:37 which is a footnote in the NIV because it is only found in some of the later manuscripts that we have, but is very much aligns with what the rest of Scripture teaches, it reads
Philip asks
Acts 8:37 footnote in the NIV
[37] Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." The eunuch answered, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
(from New International Version)
It is
that confession of faith,
that belief in his heart,
that shows his receiving the gift of salvation.
And he obeyed by responding in faith and
he is wanting to obey in being baptized.
That is what baptism is. It is an act of obedience to Christ.
It is apparent from the New Testament that this should be one of our first acts of obedience.
When we realize what Christ is wanting us to do, we need to respond in obedience.
Not only did the Eunuch respond in obedience to What Christ wanted him to do, which is receive the gift of salvation, but Philip responded obediently also.
When he heard God speaking through the angel and the Spirit, he responded in obedience and he was used by God to accomplish the Lord’s purpose.
Karrie’s Mom received Christ
As I responded to God speaking through my sister in law, I got to be used to share the gospel with her mother and to be part of her receiving Jesus as Savior, Praise the Lord for that.
What is God speaking to you and if you know it and understand it, are you ready to respond obediently?
If you have never received Jesus as your Savior or entered into relationship with Him, then I am certain that He is speaking that message of His love for you today.
He has you here so that you will know of what He has done to pay for your sins –
He sent Jesus to be born into this world,
Live a perfect life,
To die for our sins since he had no sin to pay for himself
To be raised to eternal life as the first born among many
Of which He desires you to be included in.
The thing that He wants you to do is receive Jesus as your Savior and enter into that knowing relationship with Him.
John 1:12
12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- (from New International Version)
Matthew 7:21-23
21 "Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ’Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ’I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
John 6:40
40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
(from New International Version)
Follow what the Lord wants you to do in receiving Him. I am going to pray right now and if you want to receive Jesus as your Savior, pray with me.
Pray
For the Christian
For the Christian here today, there is a message here for you to. Just as I realize now what God was speaking to me and then understanding it and acting in obedience to it, There may be something that God has been speaking to you.
If you are hearing it and God has helped you to understand it either by
His Spirit or
His Word or
by putting someone in your life to help you understand it,
then you come to a choice today.
Are you going to Obey God’s voice?
There are some of you with whom this may be hitting you right between the eyes.
In fact maybe you have heard and you have understood, but you don’t really want to obey.
You think life won’t be as good if I do what God wants me to do.
That is a lie. Satan is feeding you that lie because he does not want you to obey, because while there are times that obedience will be hard, it is always the best thing for our lives.
And the reality is that if you are not obeying God, you are obeying Satan and sin
Romans 6:16
16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey-whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (from New International Version)
Don’t let Satan deceive you as you strive to follow the Lord.
Make the choice to follow the Lord and obey.
Today Melissa Dorey is making a choice to follow the Lord in obedience to baptism.
She can go and get ready now.
Maybe God is calling you to be biblically baptized.
What is biblical baptism?
Biblical baptism is not something that happens when you are an infant.
The water baptism that the Bible speaks of is for those who have received Jesus as Savior.
It carries no meaning for those who haven’t received Jesus as Savior because without trusting Him you can’t symbolize that new life that was received.
And that’s what baptism is. It is an outward symbol of what has already occurred when you put your trust in Christ as Savior.
The Bible tells us that we have become a new creation.
The old has died and the new has been raised to walk a new life.
That is why we immerse baptize too. Immersion for one is
what the word Baptizo really means and
Secondly, the symbolism of burying the old self and having a new self raised is evident as well as our association with Christ’s death, burial and resurrection.
Sprinkling loses all of the symbolism that is supposed to be there for this.
So If you have not been biblically baptized as a believer and would like to, come and speak with me after the service and we can arrange a time for you to do that just like the Ethiopian Eunuch did and just as Melissa is doing.
If God has been speaking to you, I want to pray for you so that you will be strengthened to obey.
I would like everyone just to bow their heads and if God has been speaking to you, and you want to obey, but are seeing that it is hard, raise your hand and I will pray for you.
Pray (Worship team come up)
