OCT 31 2021 | Takin’ It to the Streets S1E5 | Scattered 4 Salvation

Sea Change Church · Takin' It to the Streets · "Scattered 4 Salvation" Pastor Joe Brandi · October 31, 2021
Genesis 27:30–38
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Good morning. I'm Rosie Furr, and I'm part of the 25 to 35 ministry and also volunteer in Unity for Orphans, which is a nonprofit led by Pastor Joe. Today I'll be reading from Acts chapter 8, 26 through 39. Philip and the Ethiopian. Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, go south to the road, the desert road, that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandaka, which means queen of the Ethiopians.

This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home he was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. The spirit told Philip, go to the chariot and stay near it. Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. Do you understand what you are reading? Philip asked. How can I? He said, unless someone explains it to me. So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

This is the passage of scripture the eunuch was reading. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent. So he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation, he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth. The eunuch asked Philip, tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else? Then Philip began with that very passage of scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

As they traveled along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, Look, here is the water. What can stand in the way of me being baptized? And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. When they came 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.

The word of the Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Take this message to my brother. You will find it everywhere. On the mark. On the mark. Take it. Do it. Take it. Take it. Take it. Take it. Take it. Take it. Take it. Take it. Take it. Take it. Take it. Take it. I hate this is taken into the streets This is no more me I love that song. On the count of three, let's just say with enthusiasm, taking it to the streets. One, two, three.

Taking it to the streets. That's great. That's great. All right. All right. Let me pray real quick. God, thank you for this Sunday. Thank you for your church. Thank you for your word. Lord, speak by your spirit, through your word, through your servant, about our Savior. In Jesus' name. Amen. So, the question I have for you to start off is how can God use opposition in your life for the spreading of the gospel? Hey, can you help out, Paul? Thanks.

Let's pray again, okay? Can Paul help me out, please? All right. Father God, I just ask you to still our hearts and help us have ears to hear and a heart to receive and a spirit to obey and help any distractions that could be distractions from the world be gone. And we ask this in Jesus' name. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. So, how can God use opposition in your life for the good of the spreading of the gospel?

How can he? How can he? How can he? And how has he? Think about it. The early church used opposition in the name of spreading, with spreading the name of Jesus, and they ushered in a new kingdom. And let me read. This scripture wasn't there, but I'm going to read from Acts 8, 1 through 4. It says, that Rosie just read, which is an amazing story. And it's a true story. There was a violent persecution. The church before that, in Acts 2.42, says that they were gathering, they were going over the apostles' teaching, they were devoted to fellowship, God increased their favor with the people, he added numerically and qualitatively to the early church after the first sermon that Peter preached, where 3,000 people got saved.

And then you see how the Holy Spirit is giving birth to the church and it's exciting. But then persecution comes. From a religious leader named Saul, who God later turned into the apostle Paul, who wrote a majority of the New Testament. And I want you to notice, yeah, I don't have it up there, that's my bad, but in the text it says that Paul began to destroy the church, he went from house to house, and he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

The Greek in that says he wanted to ravage and destroy the church. But what did the early church do? What did the early church? Verse 4, Those had been scattered, preached the word wherever you went. And then the next verse says, Philip went to Samaria and started sharing. And I was thinking about this a lot, is that we are, as a church and followers of Jesus, if you were a follower of Jesus' day, we are under some type of worldly opposition, I would say.

I don't think it's as violent as this right now, but globally it actually is as violent as this. I was reading up on the internet, and I don't know, you know, I'm not good on statistics, but there's been at least over 2 million martyrs that have happened throughout time. I don't believe, I hope that nobody here is martyred, but when there is opposition, I've noticed that myself and my friends and the spirit of our culture is we complain, we give in to fear, we start looking on what's being lost, and that America, the American we know is, there's holes in the dike and a bunch of different holes, and we see it, and we don't know if we can stop it.

And we're focusing on this big giant, folks on our mandates, we don't know things that we have to put on or not put on, and these are real things, I'm not saying we need to gloss them off, but you know what I realized in myself and with my Christian community is I don't hear a lot of people sharing stories of how they've been speaking about Jesus through all this. We're speaking more about mandates, more about mass, more about America.

It's all fine, it's where we live, these things are important, I'm not dismissing that. But the early church, after they were being dragged off to prison, said they were scattered and they shared about Jesus. I think when stuff happens to us, we need to focus on sharing about Jesus. We cannot stay in the shire forever, and God can use shattering and scattering for the good. And maybe some of you have already seen it.

Do we have an inward focus or do we have an outward kingdom focus? Point one, are you guided by the Spirit to share? Can you hear His go? Or is your inner voice of complaint, of worry, of anger, overriding the Spirit's voice and the Scripture's word, and you can't really hear? This happens to me all the time. 8.26 says, Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, Go south to the road, the desert road, that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

So he started out, and on his way, he met an Ethiopian. Sometimes there's actually a specific place that God is telling you to go. With Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, he actually heard the Spirit tell him to go down to Gaza, and how far was that? It was 50 miles by foot. So this wasn't a super fast trip, and he didn't give him all the details. The Spirit didn't give him all the details. He just said, Go to this place.

And we know the rest of the story because we heard it. The reason we read so much Scripture is because the Scripture starts speaking, and you're like, Wow, that was really good. I understand how the Spirit directed Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, and he believed, and he got baptized, and then later, I don't know if you know this, but that Ethiopian eunuch became a missionary to Ethiopia and northern Africa. Eusebius wrote, An early church historian, and basically almost the whole nation of Africa was reached through this one interaction.

But are there specific places that God is nudging you and calling you to go? Some of you already probably have stories of this happening. Like, wow, I didn't really realize it. I didn't hear his audible voice, but I felt this unction, this nudging, this desire to go to this coffee shop, to go to this gym, to go to this country. And there might have been one story of one person that you met that you got to pray for, you got to give love, you got to do something, and God might have multiplied that.

You might have not seen it, but he might multiply that. Can you hear the Spirit's voice telling you to go someplace? Then he says in verse 29, go, he gets more specific, go to that chariot and stay near it. So as he's telling Philip to go down the Gaza, he sees this Ethiopian eunuch on a chariot, and then the Spirit says to go stay near it. And then I'm going to get more into the story later. And I was thinking about it, is that sometimes, not even for sharing Christ to people that are outside the church or for people that don't believe, God is telling us to stay near somebody that's hurting.

To stay near somebody that needs to hear a word of encouragement, that needs to hear the scripture, that needs prayer. Doesn't, I was surfing with a couple of my friends in Mexico, and normally guys just kind of rip on each other. I don't know, is that what all guys do? Maybe not. Nobody's laughing, okay. Thanks, Chris. But we're not, we don't overflow with words of affirmation for each other. It doesn't mean we don't love each other, you know?

But guys, I don't know, we just like to roast each other. I think it's fun in the best possible way. I think women are way better at this with giving affirmations and words of affirmation. And one of my buddies says, you know what? I'm just going to give you words of affirmation. He's like, oh, you were surfing so good, and man, you're dressed really cool, and you're saying all these funny things, but it actually made me feel good.

I was like, wow, guys never affirm each other like this. And maybe God is leading you to a specific person within this church or somewhere else that needs encouragement. Because this is primarily a story about evangelism, you know? but if we're hurting as believers in Christ, we're not thinking about evangelism. We're not thinking about sharing Jesus because we're in pain. And God may want to use, I know he wants to use you to go to a specific place, specific people, to give words of encouragement, pointing them to the Scripture and to the Savior.

And then the Spirit later takes Philip away in 839. it suddenly took Philip away. So the Spirit directed him to go to a place, to go to a people, and after he had this long interaction with the unity, then he takes him away. And this hearkens to John chapter 3 where the Spirit of God is like the wind and it blows wherever it wishes. It's sovereign, it's free, but it's strong and it has effects. And aren't there people and situations in our life where we're in a moment experiencing this amazing conversation or this amazing time, maybe it's in your job, maybe it's in a relationship, and it didn't last forever.

It was good, but it was a season and God is taking you away. I was thinking about my cousin Erica who I grew up and she was like my sister and this was a very strong moment in my life. I'd just become a Christian. I would share with just anybody. You know, I used to have, sometimes not the right way, I used to have this truck and I was in musical theater a couple times and there was like these big red repent stickers that they were passing out and I'm like, oh, those are really cool repent stickers, like this musical repent, repent.

I don't know what musical it was from. And I took these red stickers and I had an idea. Why don't I put these all over my truck and drive all over Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo for a whole year? A lot of love, huh? But I did. I drove around and I had the repent truck and my other buddy, he had this green bug and it said, fear God and we were like the dynamic duo in college. Oh my gosh. And, um, it was nice though. I was nice.

Yeah, most of the time. And, um, but my goal was to try to share with anybody about Jesus as best as I could and maybe that would create a conversation but then when it got real to somebody that was in my family that I really cared about, did I have the same boldness? And I remember, uh, Erica, she had got her wisdom teeth pulled out and we were in Santa Cruz and I loved her, so my sister, and, uh, she knew I'd become a Christian and she kind of asked me a little bit but I didn't really push it.

I'm like, there's gonna be time. There's gonna be time. You know, she's 20 or 19 and, and the next year we get a phone call and she's at UC Santa Barbara and she died in a car wreck with three other girls and there was no more time. I hope, you know, she's, she accepted the Lord somehow but I remember at her funeral weeping, guttural, weep, you ever weep so hard you feel like your organs are gonna come out of your ribs?

You know, something like that just hit me and I'm like, I never, ever, ever want anybody in my life that I meet to not know I do not follow Jesus because I do not want to go to anybody's funeral and to experience that because the wind had taken, uh, me away. It was a certain season. as the spirit guides you to certain places, certain people, he's gonna guide seekers to meet you. Point two, seekers are out there for you to share with.

Seekers are out there for you to share with. They're in out-of-the-way places it says in verse 26, it says, go south of the road, a desert road. what out-of-the-way places are you willing to go for the gospel? And everybody, oh, Mongolia or Africa! Well, oh, whoops, I have gone to Mongolia and Africa but I don't know why this popped in my mind. It's not always somewhere out there. It could be just going to a different surf spot.

It could be going to a different restaurant. It could be going out of the way to make opportunity for God to begin the adventure of the spreading of the gospel. As I get older, I get so set in my ways. I'm like, this is where I surf. This is where I go to my coffee shop. This is my Netflix and Amazon Prime thing. And if people start violating that, I'm like, no, it's not God's will. It's not God's will for me to do that.

Do that. But you know what? God maybe wants to shake us up to go out-of-the-way places. The way God used the reaching of the world was to bring persecution through Saul. They would have stayed in Jerusalem and they would have been happy and everybody would have had to come to Jerusalem to hear about Messiah. But he used that persecution and the scattering to reach people and to reach a nation and I believe he wants to use us to go to out-of-the-way places to reach people.

Are you willing to go? Seekers are not only in out-of-the-way places but they're also different than you. In verse 27, it says, he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, which means queen of the Ethiopians. This was an Ethiopian. He looked a little different than Philip. He was in charge of the treasury. There is debate whether this eunuch was literally a eunuch or it actually became a title back in the ancient Near East of people that had high status.

And then also, if he was literally a eunuch, it helped him keep temptation because he would not have a family so he could be in charge of taking care of all the queen's and the king's money. He was of high importance, very different from Philip that had to probably just have the clothes on his back after the scattering. But they met and we find out that that Ethiopian ends up becoming a Christian. The timing of the seekers will be God-ordained.

It will be God-ordained. This man had gone from Jerusalem, had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home he was sitting in a chariot reading the book of Isaiah, the prophet. How far is it from Ethiopia to Jerusalem, do you think? Back in the day it said about 1,600 miles. 1,600 miles. How long would that take for that Ethiopian eunuch on a chariot to reach that road? They say between three and six months. And God had ordained, hey Philip, there's the scattering of the church.

He goes to Samaria. Then the angel of the Lord says, go down to the certain road that's 50 miles away. Doesn't give him everything. And then meanwhile, this Ethiopian eunuch who wanted to hear about the God of Israel for some festival, I don't know which one it was, took three months, maybe six months, 1,600 miles. Somehow was so rich, had a scroll of Isaiah because people did not have the Bible back then easily. And God brought these two people together in perfect timing.

And if you think about your life, if you're here and you're following Jesus, you can't see everything, but God was orchestrating so many different things. So the prayers of your mom or that stand-up preacher on campus or that something you heard on the radio or that brokenness from the world that you were just empty from what you were sticking in your mouth and what you're pursuing where you got, God, help me. And somehow he worked it out and now you're here right now.

Or maybe you're still in the process that God's drawing you and creating all these supernatural experiences according to his perfect timing. Don't you want to be part of his perfect timing in this story? Seekers will also have been prepared with curiosity. He was reading the book of Isaiah, the prophet. He had to purchase it. He had to learn Greek. When there's seekers that God is placing in your heart, they're going to be curious.

Sometimes, you ever feel guilty like you don't talk enough about Jesus or this person kind of argued a little bit with me and I should argue with them, be able to win the argument? That kind of has happened to me. But this is an awesome passage where it says that the guy was curious. He was already reading the book of Isaiah and then he asked the question, how can I know in verse 31 and 34, it says, how can I know unless someone explains it to me?

How can I know what I'm reading, what I'm searching for unless somebody explains it to me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Tell me, please, is the prophet talking about himself or somebody else? How can I know? Tell me, please. God, the scripture does not return void. If people are reading the text, I believe God can bring that person to salvation. But he wants to use you to help explain more clarity the plan of salvation in Jesus alone and he invites him up to share.

Has anybody invited you to be in their life but that is not a follower of Jesus yet? Pay attention to those people. Pay attention to those moments. God may be doing something subtly in the spirit that you're not even fully conscious of but if they want you to be around them and they know you're a Christian, they know you go to church, they know you're down with Jesus, they may be doing something without you realizing do not lose hope.

And don't be forceful. I used to be really pushy and I've realized now we need to be good listeners and we need to be invited and we need to be proactive but also invited to share so that we don't lose that relationship but also in that relationship we have a chance to speak the word. It's a seeker. Seekers will invite you into their life and then they want to be baptized meaning once they accept they're going to be legit.

They want to be baptized. They want to be incorporated into the new family. And then verse 39, after he accepted the Lord he came up out of the water after he was baptized and then suddenly Philip was taken away and the eunuch did not see him again but he went on his way rejoicing. The early church historian Eusebius wrote that this eunuch that had met Philip on the road and invited him up into his chariot that was reading the book of Isaiah that said tell me and explain to me and it doesn't say how long they talked that believed so much in Jesus and was filled to rejoice and then got baptized but a water that just happened to randomly be in some desert place.

God reached this whole nation through this one man. God can change the world through individuals. God can change the course of history through individuals and he wants to use us. We all have a different sphere of influence. It might not be a nation. It might just be 20 people. It might just be 10 people but God wants to use you. And a reflection on where the people really this guy was seeking for the God of Israel but how was he seeking?

It says that God was seeking him first in John 10 15 through 17 Jesus says I have other sheep that are not of this fold and he was talking about Israel. He says I must bring them also. They will listen to my voice and there will be one flock and one shepherd. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. God while this Ethiopian eunuch was seeking the God of Israel behind the scenes God was seeking him even though he didn't fully realize it because Jesus is the shepherd and he draws out the sheep and you get to be part of that.

But when you get an opportunity led by the spirit and you get to meet an actual seeker that's actually open to hear about it are you prepared to share about our savior? Are you prepared to share about our savior? Verse 29 says the spirit told Philip to go to that chariot and stay near it. And what did Philip do? Philip ran to the chariot. Philip ran to the chariot. Are we running? It was kind of like a little convicting message.

Holy Spirit maybe. Scripture. I'm a little convicted by it you know. Because even as a teacher of God's word and orphan ministry there are times I do not run towards opportunities. I still am convicted. There's a guy named Ricky that somehow when I was in Costa Rica and he was doing this Airbnb he's a shaman and he's actually it sounds scary he's like a shaman but he's a really nice shaman and he was like managing this Airbnb and I didn't want to go hardcore because I thought he'd kick me out in the middle of the night in Costa Rica and I still have his WhatsApp and I still haven't fully shared with him.

I'm just admitting this. This is like the real stuff I've not shared with him full on Jesus. I'm not running towards the opportunity. Why? Because I'm afraid. I'm just afraid of that conflict. I'm afraid of what he thinks. Even though he lives in I don't know where maybe in Costa Rica or Canada I'm still afraid that he might not like me. Aren't those things that go on in our hearts of why we don't want to share? But Philip ran towards the opportunity and when you meet people besides just running towards them and being open do you ask them questions to listen to where they're at in verse 30?

Do you understand what you are reading? Philip asked. Do you understand what you are reading? We want we want to not be too quick too quick to impose our ideas of what we believe about Jesus on them. We want to be listened to where they're at because we can talk over their head. We can talk too quick. I remember when I first was coming to the church people were talking at me because they thought they needed to hear and then it was this one guy Kale McGuire said where you are at?

Then he sat with me and he opened up Romans 7. I still remember San Luis Obispo in Woodstock's Pizza and God brought me to life that night because he understood where I'm at and he used the scripture. He used the scripture in verse 31 through 35. This Ethiopian eunuch was reading Isaiah. It says he was led like a sheep to the slaughter in a land before the shearers silent yet he did not open his mouth. God had prepared this eunuch to have the scroll of Isaiah that was reading the exact chapter that was pointing towards a crucified savior that loved him so much that would die for him so that he would not have to face God's wrath.

And then Philip believed so much in the power of the scripture and the power of the spirit that points to the savior. He didn't have to do a bunch of magic tricks. He didn't have to do a bunch of amazing big event. He just pointed to the scripture and the scripture points to the savior. And then just like Charles Spurgeon says the word of God is like a lion. You don't have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose and the lion will defend itself.

And in conclusion it says meanwhile in conclusion Chris you guys coming up. Okay. In Acts 9 while all this is happening this amazing story of the salvation of the Ethiopian eunuch that would later reach Africa and the boldness of Philip being carried by the spirit using the scripture finding a seeker it's like a movie like this is just awesome. You know beyond awesome. chapter 9 of 1 meanwhile at the same time Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples.

He went to the high priest and asked for letters to the synagogue in Damascus so that he found any there belonging to the way whether men or women he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. It's a crazy world it's a crazy time. There's been opposition to the gospel and Jesus back then and there will be opposition right now but simultaneously if we are open to the spirit directing us we're seeking out those seekers we're using scripture as it points to the Savior the kingdom of God will continue to give birth and secretly grow in this world and it will be changed more and more into the light of the gospel and God wants to use you.

So I think is there prayer people coming up? So I think for people that are following Jesus if you've been giving in to a spirit of fear or kind of I don't know just not running up to opportunities if you want to get prayer for anything but we have Noel up here for prayer ask God to give you more boldness to step into those opportunities to have more opportunities Philip and the early disciples turn the world upside down and he's not done he's not done and he wants to use you he wants to use us all and some of you guys have failed with being a witness I know I have failed with word or bad tone or whatever it is that Jesus is that taken care of he died for all of our sins even when we're trying to do good and witness he died and when we believe in him he takes his sin credits us his righteousness and sends us on a new path let me pray God thank you for your word thank you for this story of the Ethiopian eunuch it's such a big beautiful story and even if I didn't do it enough justice your word doesn't return void and I'm just so thankful we got to read this passage together help us not grow weary in sharing about Jesus and taking opportunities and lead us by the spirit to change this world upside down for your glory in Christ's name amen oh and now I'm giving a blessing so if everybody wants to stand up again if you want prayer Gerard and Noel step into that be vulnerable God can can use the prayers of righteous people and I want to share that may the power of the spirit be with you may scripture flow out of you and may you point people to the savior go in peace God's church amen